Quidditch and wonders of the heart
by x-butterflykisses-x
Summary: Oliver Wood, the highly driven quidditch captain, the object of many a girls desire and did I mention dashingly handsome? Stacey Lewis just doesn't quite see it, but in her seventh and final year at Hogwarts she discovers just how wrong she was. OWOC
1. Chapter 1

The beginning of a new school year beckoned, as Stacey Lewis stepped through on to platform nine and three quarters, to catch the scarlet train that would take her to Hogwarts for the final time. A sudden wave of nostalgia hit Stacey as she saw the billowing smoke issuing from the engine, had it really been seven years since she first stepped onto the Hogwarts Express? She suddenly had a strong urge to turn around and walk right back through the magical barrier. But she didn't, instead she turned to her parents, both of them looking on at her proudly, her mother's eyes glistened with tears. Stacey smiled and flung her arms around both her parents; they were her rock, something that was as constant as the rising sun and she knew that whatever happened she would always have them.

"Oh my darling girl, you do us proud this year! I will miss you so much. Keep to your studies and don't go wondering off after boys!" whispered her mother feverishly in her ear.   
Her father nodded briefly, "You keep to that Ravenclaw work ethic and we don't want any letter's home from Dumbledore saying he's had no choice but to take away your head girl-ship."   
Stacey nodded to both her parents, having heard this all on the way to the station, she gave both her parents one last squeeze and made her way with her trunk to the train that was to take her back to school for the greatest year of her life.

_Bloody stupid trunk, why did Mum insist on packing so much? Argh… wand, where's my wand??_   
"Step back from the trunk Miss Lewis, Fred and George Weasley here, no need to fear!"   
Stacey snorted, "Are you two just going to stand there or are you gonna help me with my trunk?"   
"Say no more milady, we can't have the new head girl dirty her hands by taking her trunk on to the train…" said George gallantly bowing before her and doffing an imaginary cap.   
"No of course we cant my dear brother," said Fred mimicking George's movement.  
"Oh, and remember this moment Miss Lewis if you ever chance upon us in the corridors after hours"   
Stacey rolled her eyes and tried to hide a grin, "well chop, chop then, I haven't got all day, and incidentally Mr Weasley, if I ever do see you out after curfew I will reserve the most tedious of detentions just for you." With that both brother's lost all pretence of being her knights in shining armour, but still helped her up with belongings.

Stacey thanked the brothers one last time and promised to talk to them at Hogwarts as they wondered off down the length of the train to find their friend Lee Jordan. Stacey grinned inanely to herself and was just about to open the door to an empty carriage when a voice interrupted her thoughts.   
"You know Lewis, you really do look quite odd, smiling like that to yourself, people are going to think all Ravenclaw's are like Looney Lovegood."   
Stacey spun around and found her self facing the sculptured torso of …   
_Damn my bloody shortness… _   
As her eye's trailed up she found herself looking at the laughing eyes of none other than Gryffindor's quidditch captain, Oliver Wood.   
"Wood," Stacey said stiffly "Firstly, her name is Luna and you really ought to stop grinning like that as otherwise people are going to think all Gryffindor's are as arrogant as you!"   
_Ok, not the best comeback in the world… but hopefully he won't notice, he is a quidditch player after all…,_   
Oliver looked down on her, his laughter fading slightly, "I wouldn't expect such cutting words to come from the head girl herself. But as much as I would love to hang around here all day and subject my self to such verbal abuse, I am other wise engaged, see you at school."   
He turned on his heel and went the same direction as the twins had gone only minutes before, Stacey simply stood there, nonplussed, her mouth agape.

"I know Wood's good looking and all but I wouldn't think he'd leave you standing there staring after him" said a teasing voice in Stacey's ear  
Stacey turned slowly and opened and closed her mouth several times before managing to get out "I was merely shocked that he can actually string two words together, I wasn't admiring his physique at all! And it's nice to see you too Jules."   
"Ah, so you admit, he does have some possible qualities that you could admire!"   
"Yes, well no, that's beside the point!"   
"uh huh"   
"He's an insufferable, pig headed… QUIDDITCH player!"   
"Well, he's a very good looking insufferable, pig headed quidditch player," said Jules   
"Extremely good-looking… damn sight better than Flint" added a new voice to the mix   
_Why do they always gang up on me?_   
Stacey snorted, "Thanks a lot Lana, and don't start me on that troll. He'd no sooner hit you than kiss you…. Marcus Flint, survivor of the Stone Age." >   
She yanked open the door and pulled her trunk in and collapsed on to the sofa.   
"Yeah, he gives a whole new meaning to the 'Me, Tarzan.' 'You, Jane' scenario" said Jules, Lana laughed as she shut the door behind them.  
"Oh I missed you guys!" Lana squealed before throwing herself onto the other two and they became a mass of flaying limbs.   
"We missed you too Lana, but can you get off us..." Jules gasped, "We're kinda lacking one thing here… OXYGEN!" she managed to rasp out.   
"Oh right, sorry Jules"   
"No problem babe. Shows us you love us…" said Stacey   
_Man, she reminds me of a puppy sometimes… jumping around like a madwoman… heck who am I kidding I wouldn't have her any other way. _   
'Hey, Stace, dun you have to like go do some head girl thing or something?"   
"Oh! Buggery broccoli! I'll see you two later…"

_Prefects, prefects carriage, right, get it together Lewis! Damn, I was hoping to stay away from Percy as long as possible!_   
Stacey slid open the prefects carriage door slowly, wishing to make as little noise as possible, having just heard Percy ploughing through his speech, of which he had sent her several drafts.   
"…what you must all remember is that you have a solemn duty to your houses and to your professors. You all have been bestowed a badge of honour and perhaps one of you will someday stand in my place." Percy gazed around the carriage, puffing out his chest in a manner very similar to a bullfrog, oblivious to the glazed looks he was getting.   
_Bloody prat… I hope he stops there… I know he was having thoughts about adding an extra paragraph just for good measure…_

Stacey cleared her throat and all eyes were suddenly on her. She grinned and waved nervously.   
"um.. hello, er.. I guess you already know who I am, well in case you don't it's Stacey Lewis and um.. well yeah… I really ought to think we cut this meeting short I'm sure you all know your dorms passwords and your rotas will be posted to you shortly and I guess you'll be all wanting to get back to you mates…"   
A rumble of consent was heard, Stacey turned to Percy who was glaring at her murderously.   
_…damn, he was going to add that extra paragraph._   
As if on cue, a tall figure appeared beside her, Stacey turned around and found her self in the company of the fourth quidditch player that day, Hogwarts Golden Boy, Cedric Diggory.   
"um, Percy can I have a word?" he asked   
Stacey laughed nervously and began to make her way to the door as she saw Cedric trying to gander for Percy's attention whilst Percy was still staring at Stacey's retreating form. Stacey sighed as she worked her way down the train, rebuking a few rowdy second years.

_Ahhh! Diggory, wow, that dark brown hair, and those eyes….NO! Bad Stacey. Cannot be having these thoughts… he's about ten! Well not ten, but still, younger than me. Must not think of Diggory… Need a distraction…Davies… what, Davies? Oh!_   
"Davies!"   
"Hey Stacey, got the head girl badge I see? How was you summer?"   
"Um… the usual, nothing. Spent time with the folks, Sunday afternoons with Grandma, not the most pleasant of experiences, you?'   
"Oh, me… not much, went to the south of France to visit some relatives, tried to get in as much training as possible, going to try and get cup this year, but I'm sure Wood's got the same thing on his mind, but there's no problem with a little friendly competition is there?"   
"Oh, France, wow must have been great, but I don't think there's such thing as friendly competition in Wood's vocabulary, it's all out war for him."   
"Yeah, Oliver's pretty much fanatical about quidditch, I'll see you at school?"   
"Yeah, sure thing Roger…"

Stacey shook her head and proceeded once more down the corridor, popping in and out of a few carriages and exchanging the same old niceties that were commonplace at the beginning of the year. Stacey quickly went up to the prefect's carriage and poked her head in; Percy was nowhere to be seen. She breathed a sigh of relief.   
"Stacey…" someone breathed down her neck.   
_ARGH!!!!_   
Stacey spun around and brought her fist crashing into someone's face. A startled yell was heard and Stacey slowly registered the shock of red hair, and someone sprawling on the floor glowering at her.   
"OH, SHIT! Percy, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…" she reached forward to try and see what damaged she had done, Percy shuffled backwards clearly fearing anymore bodily harm.   
_Oh God, oh God, I've gone and lost the headship all on the first day, Dad's gonna have a fit…_   
"You won't, tell any one will you?"   
"No, no, it's fine really, just go away, I'll be fine" Percy muttered thickly as he clutched his nose. Stacey looked quite horrified as Percy pulled himself to his feet and moved to the prefect's carriage, Stacey followed.   
"Oh God, I'm so sorry, I didn't know, you scared me!"   
To her surprise she saw Diggory sitting down quietly reading, he looked up from his book and raised an eyebrow.   
"Perce? Stacey?"   
Percy began gesturing with a free arm and pointing at Stacey.   
_oh crap, now he thinks I'm some weird nutter_   
"I didn't mean to! He snuck up on me! It was reflex"   
Cedric grinned at Stacey and whispered, "are you sure it wasn't your subconscious trying to tell you something?"   
Stacey's eyes lit up with silent laughter, Cedric shook his head slowly in disbelief.  
"Its, fine, I'll sort him out, see this kinda thing at quidditch practise all the time."   
Stacey muttered her thanks and walked back down to the carriage she had left Lana and Jules in, refusing to make eye contact with anyone she saw least she cause some more damage.   
_Bloody hell, get a grip Lewis!_

She threw herself into the carriage and saw the two girls sitting reading each other's horoscope from 'Witch Weekly'   
"Oh, jeeze, do you guys believe that rubbish?"   
"Hey, they're nothing like that muggle stuff you get in Cosmos…" defended Lana   
"Cosmo…" interjected Stacey   
"Right, Cosmo, this stuff is like done by seers!"   
"Uh huh, and you do realise Trelawney claims to be a seer…"   
Jules snorted, "Yeah, she's crazy that one, 'You must learn to cast yourselves into the beyond!'" Jules howled waving her arms about in a manner that was very much akin to Professor Trelawney.   
Stacey laughed, "What a waste of three years, I should have taken muggle studies."   
Lana sniffed in the corner, sounding very affronted, she said, "I happened to like Divination, Professor Trelawney was very much upset when I told her I was giving it up."

Both Jules and Stacey looked shamed faced; their interactions were cut short, the carriage door slid open and there stood the most terrible sight all three girls had ever beheld. Stacey began to shake as she remembered every painful moment; she shut her eyes tightly and clutched her knees to her chest trying to block out the distressing thoughts. But the harder she tried, the deeper she went, getting caught in a tangle of her worst memories. Then the thing backed out of the carriage and Stacey felt some warmth return to her body. Jules shuddered and Lana let out a shaky sigh. Jules then reached into her bag and chucked the other two a chocolate frog each.   
_Ok, that's kinda weird, since when did Jules give away chocolate?_   
Noticing Stacey's questioning look, Jules said "I think that thing was a dementor, I've read about them, they guard Azkaban, apparently chocolate helps."   
Stacey slowly unwrapped the confectionery and ate it; surprised to feel a sudden warmth, a welcome relief to the mind numbing cold she had felt in the dementors presence.   
"C'mon, I reckon we should change, we'll probably be there soon." Lana said, after she had consumed the chocolate.   
_No wonder no one gets out of Azkaban, those things, they must suck you dry._

As the train pulled into Hogsmeade's station, the three girls prepared to disembark,  
Stacey looked up towards the castle and saw the lights flickering merrily in the windows, she smiled to herself and linked arms with the girls as they made their way to the horseless carriages.   
"I can't wait to get up to the castle, I am starving!"   
"Right, hurry up then," Stacey said, as she quickly opened a carriage door and pulled herself up. Lana and Jules both tumbled in after her, just as they were about to shut the door Oliver Wood bounded in.   
"Good evening ladies…"   
Stacey nodded her acknowledgement   
"Ah, how is my favourite Ravenclaw? Any more cunning repartee?" Oliver said addressing Stacey   
"I'm afraid not Wood, I don't think you could keep up."   
"Awww, trying to spare my feelings? I didn't know you cared." Oliver said grinning all the more.   
"I don't!" Stacey made a movement forward and Oliver held up his hands in mock truce. >   
"Ok, ok, I surrender, now I'm not going to make any sudden movements, I heard what you did to Percy."   
"You heard what? He said he wouldn't tell anyone!"   
"I guess he lied, but Miss Lewis, I really ought to watch out for you, if you carry on like this, first you attempt to throw verbal abuse at me, and then, bam, you hit Percy straight on the nose! I suppose you were projecting your anger for me onto Percy. If I'd have known talking to you would have gotten your knickers into such a twist…"   
"Don't you dare presume that you had an affect on my knickers Mr Wood, and I'll have you know that it was an accident! I'm sure Cedric will tell you!"   
"Diggory? Isn't he a bit too young for you? Mmm, never saw you as the cradle snatching type"   
"Uh, uh... are you suggesting that?"

All the while Jules and Lana were sitting in the carriage looking from one seventh year to the next, both with a knowing look on their face. Just then the carriage stopped and the door swung open.   
"Of course I'm not suggesting anything, see you at school Lewis."   
_Argh! Of all the things… how dare he suggest that I… argh…. Bloody quidditch player…_   
Stacey noticed her two friends staring at her with identical grins gracing their features.   
"WHAT?" yelled Stacey, startling some nearby second years.   
"Nothing, nothing," said Lana but with a look that clearly meant something.   
Stacey shook her head in resignation and then proceeded to make her way up to the  
castle trying to ignore the looks that both Jules and Lana were shooting her. 

"Well, I think that's everything of importance," said Dumbledore. "Let the feast begin!"   
"About bloody time too." Muttered Roger Davies, who sat across from the three girls. Jules rolled her eyes and began spooning large quantities of food onto her plate, and everyone else soon followed suit. In no time at all the tables where cleared of food and the various students made their way up to the common rooms and bed. Stacey stood up, quickly checked that the prefects were doing their jobs and leading the first years up to the dormitories and then dragged her weary feet to the Ravenclaw common room and up the stairs that would take her to her dorm, as she drifted off to sleep a small smile played upon her lips, this year promised to be far more eventful that the last.


	2. Chapter 2

After having grown accustomed to long sojourns in bed, thanks to the summer holidays, being forced to rise at seven in the morning did not do much for Stacey's disposition. Having been rudely awakened by Lana, Stacey pulled herself out of bed, looked at herself once in the mirror and blanched at her hairs terrifying resemblance to a bird's nest. Stacey then proceeded to run straight to the bathroom, in an attempt to force her hair into a shape that could be considered a hairstyle. After several minutes of battling with her hair, Stacey emerged from the bathroom thoroughly exhausted and in dire need of a caffeine injection.  
Noticing both Jules' and Lana's absence from the girls dormitory, Stacey presumed they had gone down to breakfast and after hearing her stomach grumble loudly, she thought that the best course of action would to head down to breakfast.  
_Argh, far too early, really not quite sure how Lana can function this early in the morning… she must be on something, oh that's right, she's high on life… she really ought to impart this wisdom..,, write a book or something…_

Stacey managed to make her way down to the Great Hall and the Ravenclaw table, she spotted the two girls and promptly sat next to them, Jules and Lana nodded their acknowledgements, knowing full well what would happen if they tired talking to her when she was in this state of mind. Roger Davies however was not so savvy to the intricate workings of Stacey's mind.  
"Morning Stace, looking good." He said airily as he sat himself by her. "Good to back isn't it?"  
_There appears to be something… chirping… in my ear…._  
Stacey turned towards Roger and glared, Roger in turn seemed to shrink, followed by him turning away and talking rapidly with his fellow 6th year Michael Davenport. Stacey just shook her head and poured herself a large mug full of coffee and inhaled the fumes, by the time she was one her second cup and had a couple of slices of toast Stacey was almost good to go.  
"Stace, we gotta go, we going to be late otherwise, we have Herbology with the Slytherins," said Jules.  
"What, again? Why is it every year we get stuck with them in Herbology?"  
"I dunno, but it's better than Gryffindor, I think they have Potions with Syltherin and that cant be good now can it?"  
"Mmm, s'pose not."

Stacey, Jules and Lana along with their fellow Ravenclaw seventh years made their way down to the greenhouses and Professor Sprouts class. Their otherwise pleasant journey was interpreted by a large knot of Slytherin seventh years, Marcus Flint at the centre. They all appeared to be listening to some anecdote Flint was telling them; every so often Flint's story would be punctured by a guffaw and Flint hushing them up so he could continue.  
_Imbecile… loves to her his own voice that one_  
"Think it's a little bit to early on in your career to start abusing your power." Whispered Lana into Stacey's ear  
"Huh?"  
"Yeah, I mean you can't exactly claim he deserves a detention on the basis that he was telling his mates a joke," agreed Jules.  
"I wasn't considering that at all!" Stacey said defensively  
"Sure you weren't."  
_I wasn't considering giving him a detention…just docking a few points… _   
Stacey brushed off the comment and picked up the pace slightly; she soon slowed down after hearing Flint shout out, "There goes the dutiful little Ravenclaw, eager to learn and further your knowledge, aren't you Lewis?"  
_Oh, you're in for it now Flint…_   
"Flint, if you bothered to 'further you knowledge' once in a while you would notice that I'm now head girl, and as you were just disrespectful to a student I think some punishment is in order. Five points from Slytherin"  
Just as the Ravenclaws entered the greenhouse they would be working in, Stacey quietly whispered into Lana's ear, "Told you I wasn't going to give him detention."

Having had several more classes Stacey was grateful when lunch rolled around, all she had left was her favourite subject, Charms and she would be home free for the day.  
"Oh, Stace, you know we have Charms with Gryffindor this year right?" asked Jules  
"What, we do?"  
"Don't you remember, I told you at breakfast…"  
"Was that before or after coffee?" Stacey said  
"Mm.…must have been before, anyways. It's better than last year, Flint kept setting fire to Professor Flitwick's robes"  
_ah, well, at least that's one less class with the Slytherins… Gryffindor's are much more agreeable, wait… Wood is in Gryffindor, Wood is in seventh year, that means Wood is in my Charms class… no! OH GOD NO!… wait… calm down Lewis… I might be mistaken…_  
"Are you sure we have Charms with the Gryffindor's?" asked Stacey as she rummaged through her bag, looking for her timetable.  
"Yup, pretty sure."  
Stacey gave off a small yell of triumph as she pulled out her already crumpled timetable, her eyes widened, as sure enough, Ravenclaw did have Charms with Hogwart's resident Lions.  
"Um… Wood's in seventh year isn't he?" Stacey asked as casually as possible  
_Please say no. Please say I've been under the illusion that Wood's in my year, and in fact Wood is in sixth… please. Please!!_  
"Er, yeah!"  
_DAMN!_   
"Why?"  
"No-thing, no reason," said Stacey in a singsong voice, grabbing Jules and Lana by the hand and dragging them to Charms class.  
"Hey, I hadn't finished!" yelled Lana in protest  
"Well, uh, I wanted to get us good seats."  
"Great, now people will think we're geeks." Muttered Lana darkly  
"We're in Ravenclaw Lana, it kinda comes with the turf." Jules replied  
Lana sniffed and sat down.  
_Ok, I will sit in the middle of them and hopefully Wood will sit at the back, of course he will sit at the back, he's a quidditch player, he's not bothered about learning, probably doesn't care about school, once out of Hogwarts he'll be off to play professionally or something… yup, there is no chance of me sitting anywhere near Wood._

"Well, I think as this is your final year, and Professor Dumbledore is all for inter-house unity, I think we ought to mix up the seating arrangements." Squeaked Professor Flitwick from the front of class.  
_Mix it up? Since when did Professor Flitwick mix things up?_  
Stacey looked uneasily at Lana, who just shrugged.  
"Well then, I think we can put Mr Weasley with Miss Montrose."  
"whoop-dee-doo" muttered Jules as she rose and took a seat next to Percy.  
"Mm, lets see know, Miss Lewis I think you ought to sit next to Mr Wood."  
_… did he just say?_  
Stacey pulled herself up, gathered her books and moved to the back of the classroom where Oliver Wood was lounging back in his chair, smiling faintly, his eyes twinkling.  
"Wood."  
"Lewis"  
_Why couldn't Flitwick be more like Binns, even death didn't stop that guy from veering from his routine…. Bloody Dumbledore and his inter-house unity, who need its? _  
"Try looking the least bit interested Lewis, I'm starting to think you don't like me."  
"Oh, how very perceptive of you."  
"What have you got against me? If it's about the comment I made about Lovegood, I apologise."  
"I have nothing against you, just your kind."  
"What, that I'm in Gryffindor? You get along fine with Fred and George."Ok, maybe not the best answer to give   
"Besides, don't you think that's a little narrow minded?"  
_Really not the best answer to have given_  
"No, I don't not like you because you're in Gryffindor, it's just that…"  
"Just what? Tell you what Lewis, why don't you try talking to me first before you form your opinions on me? By the end of the year and you don't like me, fine, I can understand that. Just please don't presume you know everything about me just because I'm Gryffindor's quidditch captain."  
_Oh damn, the jig is up_   
"Uh, I didn't, um, no, I wouldn't do such a thing…" Stacey began looking extremely flustered.  
Oliver smiled wryly, "Sure thing Lewis, sure thing."  
The rest of the Charms class passed in silence, Stacey had neither need or desire for conversation and quite happily took down the notes Flitwick was giving them.

When the bell rang for the end of class, Oliver gathered up his things and swept out of the classroom, Stacey simply sat there and stared at the notes in front of her.  
"Oh, lighten up Stace, you're ordeal couldn't have been any worse than mine, I am sitting next to Percy, Percy of all people!" said Jules, as she dragged Stacey up and out of the door.  
_mmm…. Come to think about it, I don't know who I would want to sit with less…_  
"I guess your right, strange how Fred and George are related to Percy." Replied Stacey  
"Well, I think Charms was quite enjoyable." Said Lana, both Jules and Stacey glared at her.  
"What? It was! Anyways, I don't know why you think you had it bad Stace, you were with Oliver Wood!"  
"Um, so?"  
"He's gorgeous!" replied Lana as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.  
"Well, I don't judge people based on their looks!"  
Jules gave out a snort followed by a peal of laughter, which earned her several looks from the people passing her by in the corridor,  
"Yeah, you judge them on the sport they play…"  
"What! No I don't! I'm perfectly fine with Davies and Diggory and they both play quidditch, they're captains even!"  
"Well, that's because you knew Davies before he played quidditch and Diggory's a prefect showing how Dumbledore trusts him, so you have to accept he's a good guy. Wood, however, does not have these same attributes, thus you assume he's some sort of… oh what's that muggle term… oh, right, 'jock' who wouldn't be able to make his way to the quidditch pitch without signposts."  
_That so isn't true, I'm not that narrow minded, I cant be that narrow minded… can I?_   
"Oh, forget, about it…" Jules said pulling Stacey into a one armed hug, "lets go dump our stuff in the common room and get something to eat."

"What's wrong with you, Stace?' inquired Jules looking up from some Arithmancy homework she was currently doing.  
_What is wrong with me?_  
" I don't know…"  
"You don't know?" said Jules incredulously  
"I know it sounds stupid but, it's just that, I think I may have offended Wood…."  
Jules put down her quill and motioned for her to continue, Stacey then launched into a recount of that day's Charms lesson.  
"You know he's right don't you?"  
Stacey nodded miserably, "that's the worst part, and I was just so convinced that he was some sort of, quidditch obsessed freak…"  
"He is a quidditch obsessed freak, you just discounted the other stuff."  
Noticing Stacey's wretched look, Jules lent over and hugged her, "You know if it's eating you up you could apologise."  
_Apologise? Um... in Charms, I could tell him then… oh no, that's at the end of the week…mmm… I could write him a letter, no, too impersonal, I suppose I could go and find him…_  
Stacey bit her lip, "Where do you think Wood would be?"  
"In the Gryffindor common room? Or perhaps the quidditch pitch…"  
"Right, I'll try the quidditch pitch…"  
"What, you're going to apologise?"  
"I think so!" yelled Stacey as she ran to the exit of the common room.

Stacey had run out of the castle onto the sweeping lawns and was headed towards the quidditch pitch; she could just make out someone between the goal posts. She felt like turning back, but a Gryffindor like quality surfaced and Stacey headed off towards the pitch with even more resolve. As Stacey walked onto the pitch she saw the scarlet quidditch robes, confirming Wood's presence, she positioned herself under the goal posts and waited.  
_Ok, this is just stupid, I don't need to tell him anything… he can go on not liking me… its only one year left and then I'll be gone… and he'll be off playing professional quidditch. Arghh, get a grip Lewis…oh damn, he's spotted me…_  
Sure enough Oliver had seen Stacey and was guiding his broom down to the ground.  
"What is it Lewis, here to tell me I'm out after curfew?"  
_Great, well he obviously thinks I'm Miss Goody Two Shoes, maybe I should check…._  
Stacey glanced at her watch, "no, you still have half an hour left. I was really um, here to uh…"  
Stacey gulped nervously, she had just realised how much taller Oliver was to her. She looked up, and thanks to the fairly dark pitch she couldn't quite make out Oliver's expression.  
"You're here to??" Oliver asked  
_Think Lewis, think…_  
Stacey now felt Oliver mover even closer up her and she could now make out more of his features, he looked quietly puzzled  
"I suppose, I suppose, I feel, that um, an apology is in order. I think I may have been to hasty to judge you Wood, I shouldn't have, well I shouldn't have…"  
Oliver nodded encouragingly.  
Oh, God, why did I have to be an idiot and come and apologise. Just get it over with Lewis!  
"Ok, well, I shouldn't have made judgements about you just because you play quidditch. It was wrong of me, not to mention narrow minded and probably half of me didn't want to believe that you could be anything but a self absorbed quidditch fanatic." she suddenly rushed out.  
Oliver just stared down at her, both eyebrows raised in question.  
"Um, apology accepted Lewis." Said Oliver haltingly, as if not quite sure on what the next best course of action would be.  
"Right, good then, I'm glad we settled this. See you in Charms on Thursday then." Stacey slowly turned around but just before she left she shouted over her shoulder "Its 8:35 Wood, you better get back up to the Castle, I don't want to take any points off unless I have to!"  
Oliver just smiled to himself, as he watched her retreating figure march back to the castle.

_Oh, haha, I did it, I apologised to him, and it wasn't painful…. Who am I kidding? It was extremely painful, I don't think I can face him in Charms now… what is my problem, why can't I form some sort of decent speech pattern in front of him?_  
All the while Stacey had been furiously thinking she had made her way back up to the castle and she was now negotiating the Castle's many corridors, but as is fairly commonplace when one isn't paying attention to one's surroundings, Stacey walked into something. Not quite solid as a wall, door or a suit of armour, but still quite firm. Stacey looked up and rushed a quick apology "Oh I'm so sorry, I really wasn't looking where I was going…"  
"No, its quite all right… my fault too, I should have avoided you or something."  
_Oh, it isn't my night, I have to go and make a fool of myself in front of yet another person_   
"No really it's my fault…" Stacey replied whilst looking up at the concerned face of Cedric Diggory.  
_Typical… I just had to run straight into Diggory. Didn't I?_   
"Err…. Stacey?"  
_mmm…. Oh right! FOCUS_  
"Oh, right, sorry… it's been a long day, I really should be getting back to the common room."  
"Let me walk you," Cedric said earnestly as if fearing Stacey was a danger to herself and everyone around her in her current state.  
"No, no, its fine. You probably have something more important to do…." Stacey began making random hand movements, as if they represented the "something" and began walking away from the fifth year prefect. Cedric, meanwhile, was staring after her, his hand in his hair, a bewildered look flitting across his face.


	3. Chapter 3

The first week school was hectic as ever. A whirlwind of fresh parchment, quills and lectures, all the while the teachers of Hogwarts soldiered on, teaching all they knew and hoping the students would give it all they got. Charms came far quicker than Stacey had planned for and she soon found herself facing the door that would take her into the classroom.  
"Are you going to stand there all day Lewis?" inquired a Gryffindor  
"What?! Oh, right" Stacey pushed open the door and walked into the classroom.  
_All I have to do is act cool, not overly enthusiastic just a sense of civility…. Easy…_   
Stacey moved towards the seat Flitwick had allocated her and sat down, grateful Oliver had yet to arrive. Just as the bell sounded Wood entered the room along with a couple of his friends and sat down quickly beside Stacey. Having noticed that his class was all present and accounted for, Flitwick began his lesson for the day.  
"So, how was your week?" asked Oliver in an attempt to start a conversation with Stacey who was determinedly looking at Flitwick with a look of feigned concentration.  
"Oh, fine, what's to be expected…"  
_I don't want a discussion; my brain turns to mush whenever I have a conversation with him…_  
"And what exactly is to be expected?" Oliver queried further  
_What does he want??? A 10-page essay?_  
"You know, the usual. Crap mornings, insanely long drawn out days and the occasional comment from a Slytherin. I swear I'm going to be living off of intravenous caffeine by the end of the year."  
Oliver laughed, "Yeah, know what you mean, I can never get up in the morning. But um… the whole caffeine thing was slightly lost on me" with the last comment Oliver smiled sheepishly.  
"Oh, right, it's a muggle thing, where they um, inject medicine and drugs directly into your veins."  
"I always thought those um, muggle healers were weird"  
"Doctors, and its just another way they use to get around not using magic." Stacey smiled at Oliver and began listening to Proffesor Flitwick with rapt attention.

As the lesson was drawing to a close Flitwick gestured to the students and asked them to stop their practising. "Class, as part of your assessment this year, you will be doing a project of sorts, this project will be done with a partner and will be handed in to me. It will consist of you researching five charms of recent history, mastering them and writing a report on their benefit and affects on wizarding society. Oh, and to make it easier you will be partnered with the person you are sitting with in class."  
_Uhh… a project with Wood. Great I don't even know how good he is at Charms. And I have to spend time researching with him… in the library… and we all know what most people do in the floberworms section… Wood's Fangirls might just mob me._  
Stacey suddenly noticed a hand cross into her line of vision.  
"Lewis, do you reckon we can meet tomorrow afternoon, seeing as we don't have classes then?"  
"Oh, right, the library?"  
"Yeah, sure…"  
Stacey nodded her affirmative and picked up her books and swung her bag over her shoulder. "Well, uh, bye then…"  
The Ravenclaw common room was slowly filling up after dinner. Jules sank into a sofa and suddenly let out, "Ugh, Percy Weasley, is so…" she clenched her fists in front of her, as she let out a yell of frustration. Stacey just smiled and nodded sympathetically,  
"I know he's uptight and all but he's alright when he drops his pompous head boy act."  
"Which is never!" Jules interjected angrily  
Lana and Stacey both laughed. "Oh that reminds me," continued Jules, "how was your lesson with the delectable Mr Wood?"  
"He is not delectable and it was pleasant…"  
"Pleasant huh?" Said Lana with a grin plastered on her face.  
"Yes, pleasant, we exchanged pleasantries, nothing more, nothing less!"  
_Why is she determined to find something that's not there? And there is nothing there! NOTHING!_  
"Ok, ok…" she replied, her hands raised defensively "So, when are you guys gonna work on your project?'  
"How about never," interjected Jules, Stacey and Lana laughed at Jules' predicament.  
"Stace?" prompted Lana.  
"Oh, um, tomorrow, at the library…"  
"The library huh? Any chance you'll be in the flobberworms section?"  
_flo… flobber.. flobberworms section? Uh… that isn't happening…_  
Stacey hit Lana on the arm and glared.  
"What? I need some research for Care of Magical Creatures!"  
Stacey glared some more.

Hogwarts students are allowed one pet, be it owl, cat, rat or toad. Stacey never quite understood the point of having a toad. For one thing they are slimy, secondly, they never appear to display any sense of intelligence, and thirdly, there was no way you'd ever get your toad to deliver post. So, the following day, when Stacey found herself faced with a teary eyed first year, claiming a fourth year Slytherin had levitated his toad up onto the roof beams, she found herself pondering if she could leave it there, really she'd be doing the kid a favour. However, when a fresh wave of tears threatened to overcome the child, she hurriedly pulled out her wand.  
"Its fine, I'll get him down for you, I'm sure he'll be fine."  
The first year sniffed loudly and nodded.  
_Ok, what to do, what to do, if I only had a ladder… duh! I can transfigure one…_  
Stacey screwed her eyes up in concentration and transfigured a nearby bucket into a ladder that would just reach. In no time at all she was climbing up the transfigured object and was balancing precariously trying to reach for the toad. She felt her fingers grasping at the toad, she quickly seized it and in doing so she lost her footing.  
_Oh piss it!_

As one would expect if you were to fall off a tall ladder you would be flattened against the cold stone floor. And as luck would have it, a certain Hufflepuff seeker was walking nearby. So, Stacey was saved from that fate as she found her self in the strong arms of none other than Cedric Diggory  
_My hero…_  
"Nice catch Diggory…"  
Snapping out of her reverie Stacey looked towards the person who had just uttered those words and there stood Wood  
"Thanks, Cedric, you can put me down…"  
"Charms project Lewis?' Oliver said, faintly smiling  
"Right, um yes… charms…"  
Oliver turned around and gestured for her to follow. Stacey quickly handed the toad back to the first year, which too, had been saved from making close friends with the floor.

As the two seventh years made their way down the corridors to the library Stacey couldn't help but notice Oliver's mouth kept twitching. She looked towards him and gave him a penetrating look.  
"What?"  
"Why exactly were you up a ladder?"  
"I was getting a first year's toad"  
"And where exactly did you get the ladder from?"  
'I transfigured it….  
_Ok, where is he going with this?_  
Wood's mouth twitches had now manifested themselves as a full-blown grin.  
"Let me get this straight, you worked a really complicated piece of magic to conjure a ladder, climbed up it and nearly broke your neck doing so, all for some kids toad?"  
"Well… he seemed really upset?"  
"Well, didn't that, simple little charm we learnt in fourth year spring to mind?"  
"Um…"  
"Oh, I dunno lets, say the accio charm?"  
Stacey blushed and her mouth formed a large 'o' but the sound refused to come out, in stead she stood there, blinking slowly.  
_Oh… damn.., say something! Your house's pride is at stake here! Oh Rowena don't fail me now! _  
"Although, I must admit, quite admirable of you to go about getting the toad the longest and most complicated way," grinned Oliver, "Always knew you Ravenclaw's were hardworking."  
_Ummmm… think woman_  
"Ok, fine, I admit, not the most intelligent way of getting the toad down! But I did it, didn't I? No harm done…"  
"And if Diggory hadn't been there?"  
"Ok, ok! I get it, really stupid of me! Should have summoned the toad!"  
"I don't know what I would have done if you fell to the floor," he looked down at Stacey, appearing to be genuinely concerned "I have no idea where I would go for this type of lovely conversation."  
Stacey let out a yell of sheer frustration. "Can we drop this already?"  
The volume of Oliver's reply dropped sharply as the two of them entered Madam Pince's domain.  
"Ok, ok, keep your shirt on…"  
"There you go again, assuming you have some sort of affect on my clothing." Stacey hissed furiously, trying to convey her annoyance whilst keeping her voice quiet enough and not incurring the wrath of the Librarian.  
"As you deny it so fervently, leads me to believe that its all the more true."  
'Oh, am I that transparent? I want you, I need you! Oh baby, baby." Stacey said in her most sarcastic tone.  
Oliver wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, he leant down to her level and Stacey felt his hot breath against her neck "You, me, broom closet, five minutes."  
In response to Oliver's proposition Stacey snorted and rolled her eyes and she grabbed Oliver by the front of his robes and dragged him to a table.  
"Steady on Lewis…"  
"Oh, shut up." Stacey snapped as she sat down at a table and pulled out parchment and quill.

Several hours later Oliver was slouching back in his chair and Stacey was hunched forward, her forehead scrunched up in concentration. Mountains of books and parchment surrounded the two of them, Stacey muttered to herself and shook her head, hunching up even more.  
_I really don't get this charm, the theory behind it, is just so complicated…._  
Stacey growled slightly and ran her hands through her hair.  
"What's up?"  
"Nothing…." Stacey said inaudibly  
"Um… do you er… get it?" Oliver asked hesitantly as if fearing any suggestion at Stacey's inadequacy would unleash a fury never before seen.  
Stacey sat that there, not daring to give a response, she finally shook her head.  
_Argh, bloody stupid spell, bloody stupid Wood for picking it!_   
"Do you… um want me to explain it to you?"  
Stacey was torn.  
_Ok, if he doesn't explain it, we can get another Charm that's simpler, but that will make the project look less impressive…or I can say that I do get the spell, but then I wont be able to help and then…damn…_  
Stacey nodded her head ever so slightly; unknown to her, Oliver was smiling at her, amused at her antics and her apparent pride.  
"Ok, sure…" with that Oliver moved his chair closer to Stacey's and leant across her to reach for a textbook. He then began carefully explaining the various intricacies of the spell.  
_Wow, he isn't half bad at Charms. He actually understands this… and mmmm… he smells good… NO.. stoppit Lewis.. think… concentrate… charms… I refuse to become one of those mindless girls lusting after him…_  
"You follow?" he asked finally.  
"Um, yeah, thanks for that."  
She quickly checked her watch and noticed that it was 6.30.  
"Err… do you think we should leave it there for now? Break off for dinner?"  
"Yeah, sounds good. Do you want to do some more afterwards?"  
"Um, yeah sure…"  
"Ok, cool. C'mon then."  
Wood had now risen to his feet and was holding out his hand. Stacey hesitantly took it and he heaved her to her feet.

The delicious smells from the Great Hall were wafting down the main corridor at the front of school and Stacey was almost irresistibly drawn to the tantalising aromas issuing from the various house tables. Stacey waved a goodbye to Oliver and headed towards the Ravenclaw table, seeing Roger, she sat down next to him.  
"You just missed Jules and Lana. Where were you anyways? You lot are like some weird set of triplets, you're like Ravenclaw's answer to the Golden Trio."  
"Yup. That's us, we were separated at birth and reunited together at Hogwarts, they should make a movie out of it. And in answer to your question, I was in the library with Oliver."  
"Oliver now is it? You weren't in the flobberworms section now, were you?"  
"No I wasn't! We are working on a Charms project together, and makes more sense to call him Oliver, it is his name you know"  
"Right, Charms project!" Roger drawled, as if to display his scepticism. Stacey hit him on the arm.  
"Yes! A charms project…"  
Roger rolled his eyes, "Your no fun!"  
"Ok, fine, if you must know, me and Oliver were having wild, passionate, sex in a broom closet." Stacey deadpanned "I wouldn't recommend it…"  
"I should hope not, as much of a stud Oliver is, I'd rather stick to Hogwarts female populace if you don't mind!"  
Stacey burst into a fit of laughter and subsequently began choking on her pasta.  
"You all right?" Roger inquired, whilst pouring her a glass of water.  
"Fine, fine, I really should hurry up." Stacey then proceeded to scarf down the rest of the pasta and quickly rose and made a beeline for the Gryffindor table. Having seen her, Oliver gave her a look. "That was quick…"  
"Yeah, well I want to get the Charms out of the way, its doing my head in!"  
Oliver clearly loathe to be taken away from his unfinished food, proceeded to wolf down what remained on his plate.  
"Hey Stace!" someone yelled from the other end of the table, Fred Weasley was waving at her with a chicken drumstick.  
"Yeah, what?"  
"I'm offended Stacey! You cut me deep, you choose to spend time with Wood, over… me? Sure, he has his good looks, cute grin and excellent keeping abilities. But what about me, with my devilish personality and raffish charm?" Stacey grinned at Fred, meanwhile, Oliver had finished and was walking Stacey down to Fred's end of the table, as he reached him he hit Fred over the head. With that, he pulled Stacey out of the Great Hall. Fred pretended to be crushed and as George was consoling his 'devastated' brother, he sighed to himself "Young love. How... stirring"

Once more, the two charms students entered the silent library, save for the scratching of quills, and turning of yellowed pages. Stacey led Oliver to the table they had previously occupied and began pulling out the contents from her bag that would be needed, once finished, she headed to the shelves that contained the books that would be useful to them. Leaving Oliver to get his own writing implements ready. Half an hour later Stacey couldn't concentrate, her thoughts kept wondering away from Charms, in fact, her thoughts kept wondering to the quidditch player opposite her.  
_Mmm…. He has a lock of hair that always falls into his eyes… _  
Oliver impatiently pushed the offending hair out of his line of vision.  
_Ah… those eyes, so full of warmth and laughter…argh,… get a grip Lewis… focus on Charms.. not Oliver's strong jaw, or straight nose or… this is pointless! I'm not going to get anywhere._  
Stacey growled slightly to herself, earning a look from Oliver, he raised an eyebrow in question.  
"This is pointless. I'm not getting anything more done tonight!"  
"Want to give it a rest then? We can perhaps meet up in a couple of weeks, it isn't due till the end of term."  
"Yeah, sounds good!" Just as Oliver was about to leave and head back up to his Common Room, Stacey blurted out, "Do you want to…um... go for a walk or something?"  
_What was that?? I didn't just ask that did I?_  
"Sure."

Oliver and Stacey had apparently bonded over their arduous Charms task and as they walked down to the lake the flow of conversation had been surprisingly steady.  
"You know, I should watch my back, I might have some rabid fangirls chasing after me, out for my blood, come to think of it, there might be an odd fanboy. For all of Roger's denials, I reckon he's secretly harbouring desires for you." Stacey joked.  
Oliver let out a loud laugh that rang clear into the night, "Mmm, you must have seen it too, those looks Montague gives me?"  
This caused Stacey to burst into a fit of giggles, "Sure… sure... Montague," she choked out "Those long sultry glances, those come hither looks… Never sparing you more than a brief moment, as Salazaar Slytherin could never have one of his proud sons lusting after a Gryffindor, imagine that, his whole life," Stacey paused for dramatic affect "… a lie!"  
By this time Stacey had stopped in her tracks and was doubled over, laughing furiously, she suddenly stopped and looked up at Oliver, her eyes glistening with tears of mirth.  
"You know, you're not all what I expected." She said suddenly  
"That's me, always like to keep you guessing." Oliver replied, grinning cheekily.  
Stacey rolled her eyes, and let out an involuntary shiver.  
"Are you cold?" inquired Oliver  
"Just a little…"  
'C'mon, lets go back to the castle, it's getting late anyways, and we really shouldn't be out here." With that, he pulled Stacey towards him, wrapped one arm around her shoulder and held her to the warmth of his body.  
"Yea, we should be getting back…"  
Oliver suddenly realised something, "You know Lewis, do you have an ingrained desire to be a nonconformist or something? All of your recent behaviour is pointing towards delinquency rather than future ministry of magic material. Leading me out into Hogwarts' grounds with a mass murderer on the loose, what were you thinking?"  
"Don't worry Wood, I wont let him have his wicked way with you. Besides, you're the Gryffindor, you're supposed to be the brave one, slaying dragons and rescuing damsels, all in a days work for you."  
'Well, the next time you find yourself accosted by a dragon, just yell."  
"And I suppose you'll come to my rescue?"  
Oliver paused and looked down at her before replying, "Only if you want me too."


	4. Chapter 4

The month of September had been and gone, and soon October was to give way to November. October 31st signalled the pagan celebration of All Hallows' Eve and coincidentally, the first trip to Hogsmeade. Oliver and Stacey had yet to meet again for the Charms assignment, due to Stacey's head girl duties and Oliver's scheduled quidditch practices, in preparation for the up and coming season.  
"Get up Stace, get up!" Lana yelled as she roughly shook Stacey awake, satisfied she had been roused from her sleep, Lana moved on to Jules.   
"Lana, its only 8.30, and it's a weekend!" wailed Stacey, as she tried to burry herself under the covers. Lana rounded on Stacey, flicked her wand and Stacey's covers flew off her.   
_Argh COLD! Bloody non-verbal spells…_   
"A Hogsmeade Weekend! Hurry up and get ready so we can go down to breakfast, I want a full day at Hogsmeade." With that Lana abruptly marched out of the dorm and down into the Common Room.   
Jules sat up groggily and blinked several times in an effort to grow accustomed to the light. "Since when did she get so assertive?" Jules inquired, noticing Stacey's bedding strewn across the floor.   
"I have no idea," muttered Stacey as she pulled herself out of the four-poster and made her bed with a few movements of her wand, that she had retrieved from the bedside table.

Forty-five minutes later, Stacey opened the door of the bathroom expelling large amounts of steam, and she emerged, Phoenix like, refreshed and rejuvenated. Having thrown on a pair of jeans and a shirt, Stacey began to dig around in her trunk for a suitable jacket, as she was continuing her quest, Jules finished getting ready and was waiting for her by the door. A few moments later, Stacey's search proved to be fruitful and she pulled a comfortable jacket that would protect her from the harsh weather. Once having preformed a de-creasing charm on the it, Stacey and Jules both went down to the Common Room, to find Lana standing by the exist, tapping her foot impatiently.   
"Honestly,you two. Really don't know how you can take that long to get ready."   
"Have you seen my hair in the mornings Lana? My hair behaves perfectly normally in the day, but when it comes to night time, its like they have some weird party up there, and next morning, it looks like a squirrel tied to make camp in it." muttered Stacey darkly.   
Lana looked at Stacey, and then turned to Jules, demanding an answer, "What can I say, I have to make myself look beautiful."

Stacey, Lana and Jules all sat down at the Ravenclaw table and began helping themselves to the array of food that was in front of them.   
"So what are you going to do today?" said a foreign voice in Stacey's ear, she turned and found George Weasley's inquiring face.  
"Suppose we'll just walk around, visit Honeydukes, perhaps Zonkos, and of the course the Three Broomsticks."  
George nodded and took a bite of Stacey's toast, "Mmm, your marmalade's better than ours. Oh and you lot should meet up with us for some butterbeers."  
"Sure thing." George grinned and walked off back towards his house's table.

Hogsmeade, the only village in the entirety of the United Kingdom, to be wholly populated by wizards. As of such, the village was full of various shops, all there to cater to every wizard's or witch's needs. Stacey along with Lana and Jules began the trek down to the village, waving at fellow students also on their way to Hogsmeade for a day of enjoyment before the Halloween Feast. Stacey pulled her jacket tighter around her, as the wind whipped her hair about her face in a playful manner.  
"Where to first?" Jules asked the other two, Lana looked thoughtful for a moment, "Hey, how about the Shrieking Shack, we haven't been their since fourth year!"'  
"If my memory serves me correctly, you never came with us!" said Jules  
"I did too!" replied Lana defensively  
"If you call standing at the bottom of the lane, waiting for us to come back, as going, then sure…"  
"It wasn't my fault! If you had my sisters in your family, you'd have been scared too!" conceded Lana. Stacey just laughed silently to herself at her friend's antics.  
"Ahh, c'mon you two, lets go already!"

The three Ravenclaw's stood before the shack, Stacey remembered when she and Jules had first stood in front of the building, clutching each other's hands. At the time Stacey remembered her muggle mother telling her ghosts weren't real, but the young third year had been forced to reconsider her mother's evaluation when she first entered Hogwarts doors. Once again Stacey was faced with the prospect of particularly violent spirits, and she still felt the slight frisson of fear and apprehension as she was transported back to her first ever visit.  
Lana was first to break the silence that had fallen between them "Doesn't seem all that haunted…"  
"I know, I don't think its been haunted for years, I doubt the shack will be shrieking again any time soon." Jules replied.  
Stacey began stomping her feet against the ground, "I'm getting cold, can we go back down to the village, I feel Honeydukes calling to me!"  
"Yeah, I too feel the call of the chocolate, and who are we to deny our most basic needs?" jested Jules. The three of them gave one last look at the Shack, and marched on down the lane that would lead them to the Hogsmeade's main street and the warm inviting shop windows.  
Honeydukes was heaving with Hogwarts students, every one of them stocking up on the various delicacies and delights Honeydukes had to offer. Stacey was no different as she began pulling down various chocolate bars and numerous packets of Bertie Bott's Beans.  
"Hungry?" came a teasing voice from Stacey's left.  
"Always am," she replied.  
"Good, good, I've always liked a girl with a healthy appetite."  
"A healthy appetite?"  
"Yes, a healthy appetite."  
Stacey turned to a smiling Cedric Diggory, "So, how are you? Were you too drawn by Honeyduke's irresistible call?"  
"Yup, I feel I speak for everyone, that whenever you set foot in Hogsmeade you need to pay homage to this place."  
"I know what you mean, they must put something in the chocolate," replied Stacey  
Cedric chuckled lightly to himself, "Well, I best pay for these, I believe my friends are ready to risk life and limb and enter Zonkos, so see you at the feast, bye!"  
"Yeah, see you around Cedric."

As promised, Stacey went to meet the Twins and several of their friends at the Three Broomsticks, taking both Lana and Jules with her. The three seventh years entered the pub, glad of the respite from the weather. Jules soon spotted Fred and George in the mass of Hogwarts students and the three of them proceeded to negotiate their way through the closely packed tables.  
"Stace! Lana! Jules!" Fred bellowed and began gesturing frantically._As If I couldn't see him_   
"George!" Stacey yelled affectionately ignoring Fred.  
"Stace!" he yelled back and threw his arms around her.  
A cough was suddenly heard, Fred stood there, with a look of mock anger on his face, "How long has this been going on? Have you been stringing me along all this time Stacey? Did those nights mean nothing to you?" Fred said in mock indignation, "and how could you, my own brother?" rounding on George.  
The group of Gryffindor's plus the three Ravenclaw's burst into laughter at the Twins play-acting.  
"My, my Lewis, both of the Twins? That really isn't ministry material at all!" came a deep voice from behind Stacey. She turned around; misjudging how far said person was behind her, and collided with the Oliver Wood's well-toned chest, loosing her balance slightly as she fell to the ground, but Oliver's quick reflexes saved her.  
_Ouch… damn, I've been walking into people, falling off things, falling on to things an awful lot recently, maybe I ought to see Madame Promfey… _   
Stacey looked up at Oliver, and grinned awkwardly, "Sorry about that!"  
"No problem, in fact I rather enjoyed it. Not every day that you get to have the Head girl collapse in your presence."  
Stacey sighed dramatically, "I suppose it's your animal magnetism that does it, makes me go weak at the knees."  
"Ah, so that explains it, animal magnetism. I've always wondered why I had girls swoon in front of me whenever I passed them in the corridors."  
"More like they saw your ugly mug and felt the quickest way to get away from it would be to faint." quipped Fred  
"Watch it Weasley, or you'll find yourself doing laps when everyone else has finished for practise."  
Fred laughed nervously, knowing full well what Wood could make him in do 'in the name of quidditch,' "Just kidding Ollie…"  
Oliver just laughed; however, he soon stopped as a fellow seventh year Gryffindor hailed him from a few tables away.  
"Well, I'm being summoned, I'll see you lot at practise," he said gesturing to the large proportion of the Gryffindor team present, "Later Lewis." He added in an undertone to Stacey.

" So you and Wood, that seemed far more than an exchange of pleasantries Stace," commented Jules, as they made their way back up to the castle for the Halloween Feast.  
Stacey began fiddling awkwardly with the bag that contained all she had bought from the various retailers of Hogsmeade. "We may have moved on from pleasantries…to um… proper conversation."  
"When did this happen?" inquired a smiling Jules.  
"In the library…"  
"Not in the flobberworms section by any chance?"  
_What is it with the flobberworms section; besides, you don't really tend to get a lot of talking done, not when… never mind…_  
"No, not in the flobberworms section, you honestly have a weird fixation with that place!"  
Jules just smiled at her, and was soon joined by Lana.  
"What?"  
Jules and Lana both continued smiling.  
"What!?"  
Their smiles widened even further.  
"Argh, you two are hopeless!"

The Great Hall was decorated for the night's festivities, orange streamers, clouds of flying bats and of course the mandatory pumpkins. The air buzzed with excitement, as numerous students piled into the hall, every one of them eager to begin the feast.  
_Wow, the hall…. Its so…. Orange_  
Once everyone had settled in his or her respective places, the eating began in earnest, and as with every other Hogwarts feast the food was as delicious as it was abundant.  
"Ugh, I'm stuffed," groaned Jules, as she pushed her plate away from her. Lana nodded in agreement as she mirrored Jules' actions.  
_Amateurs…_  
"Ahh, c'mon you guys, we still have dessert to come yet!"  
Lana groaned slightly, although at the mention of dessert Jules perked up slightly, she was legendary in the Ravenclaw common room for her sweet tooth.

The nights festivities where drawing to a close as everyone had eaten their full and were eager to get back up to their dorms. Stacey & co. trudged their way back to the Ravenclaw Common Room and to the blazing fires. Upon their arrival, all three of them collapsed onto a sofa nearest the fire, Lana made a movement to get up and drag herself to bed, but Jules flung out an arm, "Don't bother, just stay here…"  
_So comfy, kinda squishy come to think of it…_  
With startling force, the door that shut off the Ravenclaws from the rest of Hogwarts, was flung open and Professor Flitwick stood at the threshold, he motioned to his house and began talking in a slow voice but every so often he squeaked, betraying his anxiety, "Please, students, you must all return to the Great Hall, I do not want any arguments. All of you make your way to the Great Hall, now!"  
_Mmm, he sounds serious… and for some reason I don't think Dumbledore's decided to have a random Halloween Party…_  
Stacey heaved herself to her feet and held out her hands to pull Jules and Lana up. All three of them exchanged unspoken words; all three of them with the same curious, yet slightly apprehensive look.

As they reached the Great Hall, they were met by Hufflepuff and Slytherin and as the three houses converged together at the entrance to the Great Hall there was an intense buzz of confused voices. Stacey pushed her way through the crowd and into the hall. Upon her arrival she saw Percy standing imperiously, attempting to direct students, she quickly made her way towards him just before Dumbledore spoke.  
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle, I am afraid for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the Hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbances should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looking incredibly proud, "Send word with one of the ghosts."  
Just as Dumbledore was about to leave he tuned and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing…" and with a casual wave of his wand the house tables flew to the sides of the Hall and hundreds of purple sleeping bags materialised out of no where.

Once the teachers had left, the news of the Fat Lady's attack began to circulate as the Gryffindor's began telling their fellow schoolmates the nights events, suddenly Percy yelled, "Everyone into their sleeping bags! Come on now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"  
_What the hell happened… it cant have been… no, surely not!_  
Stacey walked towards Percy, and upon reaching hearing range she whispered urgently, "What happened? Why the hell do the teachers need to search the castle?" He sighed slightly before replying "Black, he tried to get into our Common Room, slashed the portrait that guards the entrance when she wouldn't let him without a password."  
"Shit…"  
Stacey turned to survey the hall, several students where grabbing sleeping bags and moving to more secluded areas of the Hall. Stacey made her way through the cluttered hall, hearing the one question on everybody's lips, 'How did he get in?'

As the Head girl made her way throughout the Great Hall, telling the odd student to be quiet, she saw a tall, broad shouldered prefect standing stiffly in front of one of the small side entrances that led to one of the numerous chambers that surrounded the hall.  
Stacey gently reached out and tapped him on the back; the tall, broad shouldered prefect jumped slightly, " Are you my relief?"  
"Not quite solider, how are you holding up?"  
"Oh, um, fine, considering that a mass murderer could burst into the hall any moment now, and I'd be the only one standing in his way and preventing him from turning us all into pumpkins or something…"  
"Pumpkins?"  
"Err, I don't know! Some sick twisted game of Black's, he'll play with us, turning us to pumpkins, slowly delaying the moment till he adava's us?" the prefect said, gradually sounding more nervous.  
Stacey gave the prefect a long hard look, "I'll get someone to replace you soon, you'll be fine." She gave him a comforting pat on the back and made her way towards the next prefect, once again telling students to keep it quiet. She continued with this routine until she had seen every prefect standing guard in the hall.  
_Ugh, Percy is enjoying this way to much, I swear, I thought I spotted him reading 'Prefects Who Gained Power' at breakfast, honestly…._  
Stacey checked her watch, it was only 11:20, she sighed to herself, it was going to be a long night. Following Percy's lead she walked amongst the clumps of sleeping bags, hearing the random theories on how Black gained entrance to the castle  
_Yeah sure, Black apparated into the castle, hasn't anyone read Hogwarts: A History? And how in God's name is turning himself into a flowering shrub going to help him sneak in…_

Stacey was jolted from her thoughts as she found herself face to face with Percy.  
"Stacey, what are you doing? People need to be quiet, no talking!"  
_Argh, not him…_  
"I'm sure whispering is fine…"  
"Whispering isn't fine! Whispering doesn't equal silence, they'd be disturbing other people!"  
"Percy, think about it, Sirius Black may still be in the castle, do you honestly think most people will be interested in sleeping?"  
"That's beside the point! There should be silence!"  
All the while, their whispered conversation had remained fairly quiet yet Percy's body language had grown more dramatic, as if compensating for his inability to raise his voice.  
Stacey raised her hands in resignation, "ok, ok, I'll tell them to shut up…"  
She quickly sidestepped Percy and made her way over to a large group of purple sleeping bags. Whispered conversation could be heard and stifled laughter, Stacey not wanting to incur the wrath of the nuisance that was Percy, decided to act, "Hey, you lot, quieten down."  
"Or what?" inquired a sneering voice  
_Bugger, it just had to be Flint…_  
"Just shut up alright? Or you'll find your self in detention and I'll personally oversee your punishment."  
"Punishment? I can just imagine you with a whip Lewis, you always were the domineering type."  
_Oh, he did not just say that!_  
"You better watch it Flint, or I'll stick your broomstick where the instructions tell you specifically not to."  
"Domineering and feisty, you must be great in the sack Lewis…"  
"One more word Flint!" at that particular moment in time, a teacher chose to enter the hall and check up with Percy, wisely Flint backed down. Stacey turned on her heel and swept off, however, she was once more stopped, this time by a "pssst" accompanied with an 'Oi, Lewis!"  
Stacey moved towards the direction in which the summons had come from and found herself being pulled down to the floor by the corner of her robes.  
_Uhhh, Oliver?_  
"Is there any reason why you're making me sit on the floor?" Stacey asked  
"Yeah, so we can conduct a proper conversation without you looking down all the time and me craning my neck up," Oliver replied  
"Right, I really shouldn't be talking to you, there must be silence!"  
Oliver smiled, "As is the law laid down by the all powerful Percy?'  
"Oh yes, no noise what so ever, I really ought to be telling you to shut up, but who gives?"  
"Ah, there's the delinquent I love and know so well, Anyways, not to worry, if Percy spots us, I'll claim you fell under my irresistible charm and you couldn't possibly resist the desire to talk to me."  
"Your irresistible charm? I seem to be falling prey to that quite a lot recently."  
"Indeed you have been, Miss Lewis…."  
Stacey smiled, "As much as it pains me to leave your ever dazzling presence, I have to be going. See you around."  
Oliver waved a goodbye to her as she continued on her way walking in between the various clumps of sleeping bags.


	5. Chapter 5

For the days following Halloween, the student body could only talk of the attack on the Fat Lady and her subsequent flight. How far would Black go to gain access to Hogwarts, stronghold of Albus Dumbledore, the one person Voldemort feared in life? Black had managed to get through all the defences of Hogwarts, widely acknowledged as the safest place (other than Gringotts) in the wizarding world. However, school life remained ever the same, students' mastered spells, melted their cauldrons and lied about their homework.

On the Tuesday following Halloween, you would find any of the Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's insane enough to tackle NEWTs, in the Charms classroom, all resisting the urge to curl up and die. Stacey, usually one of the most attentive students, was not enjoying herself. She had been told, when she was on top form, she could put Hermione Granger to shame, as apparently, she beat the know-it-all Gryffindor hands down when it came to all around attentive-ness. However, Stacey was staring blankly at the blackboard on which Professor Flitwick had written notes, she had been re-reading the same line repeatedly for the past five minutes and her quill had stopped moving three minutes before that. Stacey was unsure why she had been suddenly hit by this wave of melancholy, but she had no will power to pull herself out of it, instead she sat resigned to reading the same line over and over again, hoping Jules would have made comprehensive notes.  
_Ugh, what is wrong with me? I love charms! Really! Get a grip woman!_  
"Lewis," Stacey's name gently drifted to her as she tried to regain some lucidity,  
"Lewis, Lewis… Stacey!"  
This time Stacey managed to break free of her stupor and reply with an extremely eloquent "huh?"  
"Are you alright? You've kinda been zoned out for about 10 minutes."  
Stacey tried marshalling her thoughts, "Mmmm"  
_Mmmm? That's the best I could come up with??! Dammit Lewis, pull yourself together!_  
"Stacey? Are you sure you're all right? How many fingers?" he said half-jokingly. Stacey managed to swot his hand away.  
"I'm fine, just really, um…"  
Oliver looked at her inquisitively, "Really what exactly?'  
She shook her head slightly, as if to rid herself of her current brain-dead state. "I'll get back to you on that one," Stacey gave off a groan and put her head against the table, giving up all pretence of trying to copy down notes.  
Oliver sighed to himself, "This is for your own good you know." He then proceeded to poke Stacey around her middle and she jolted up, startled.  
"Do you have anything to say Miss Lewis?" Professor Flitwich queried.  
"No, no…." Flitwick gave her one last penetrating stare and went back to marking essays.  
Stacey turned to Oliver, glowering. He looked at her and grinned sheepishly "Hey, it was either that or me trying to explain your comatose state at the end of the lesson! And that wouldn't have been pleasant for me nor good for you."  
"So you were doing me a favour?'  
"Yeah! A favour."  
"Really?"  
"Yes, really, now start writing notes or I'll be forced to take more drastic measures."  
"Ok, ok, fine…" Stacey muttered resignedly.  
Oliver just laughed to himself and resumed his own note taking.

As the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson Stacey pulled herself from her seat and quickly shoved her notes into her bag, which she then swung over her shoulder and made her way for the door where Jules and Lana were waiting for her. As the girls were about to exist the classroom posthaste, Oliver grabbed Stacey wrist, "Do you want to um work on charms Friday then?"  
"Huh, sure thing, meet you outside the library then, same as last time?"  
"Great, see you then!"  
Oliver, who had yet to release her wrist throughout their encounter, now did so, as he sped off after his friends waving a good bye over his shoulder.

The following evening Stacey had just finished up with a brief meeting with the prefects and Percy, she was wondering around aimlessly, not really up to going back to her common room. As she made her way down one of Hogwarts many winding corridors she heard the chattering of a number of students and found her self faced with the muddied and dishevelled Gryffindor quidditch team. They all had the same look gracing their features, extreme fatigue, with the exception of Wood who was frowning slightly and seemed to be radiating low levels of anger.  
_Quidditch! Oh, they have their first match this Saturday…_  
As Fred and George passed her they managed a brief hello, but soon got back on the path to their Common Room and desired rest. Just as Stacey passed Oliver she gently reached out an arm and gave him a questioning look. "Are you alright?""  
He fixed her with an intense stare, which made her step back a step and he suddenly exclaimed, "Hufflepuff!"  
"Sorry? Oliver are you ok?"  
"Completely different style than Slytherin, bloody Flint, Diggory has a really strong side this year…" he looked down at the floor and then was suddenly struck with an idea "Your friends with Diggory aren't you?"  
"Yeah…." Stacey replied uncertainly  
"Close enough to injure him?"  
Stacey laughed incredulously, "Oliver, I think you're taking this a little too seriously"  
Oliver suddenly snapped out of his apparent trance, "Oh, God, sorry, I already got this from the team. But it's just, we have to win!" He said desperately his eyes betraying his anger and giving way to dejection. Stacey's heart went out to him,  
_Oh, God, he looks so adorable when he's like this._  
Stacey took Oliver by his arms and shook him slightly, "You'll be fine, don't doubt your team and don't doubt yourself!"  
_Isn't he the one that's supposed to give the pep talks?_  
Oliver looked at her, "Honestly! Anyways, you look awful, I think you should be getting back to your common room." Oliver nodded and brought himself to smile slightly and began following the muddy trail his team left.  
_At least he won't get lost…_  
By the time Friday rolled around, Stacey had successfully managed to throw her dark mood off and was back in the swing of things. She considered this a fairly impressive feat, as the current weather did nothing to help, it was progressively getting worse and for a brief moment she wondered if the quidditch match would be cancelled but then realised, quidditch matches were hardly ever cancelled, the only time she'd ever witnessed that was last year. Jules and Lana on the other hand, had almost become the walking dead, Fred Weasley put it down to the fact they had suddenly realised the immense task of NEWTs and had decided the future was bleak and no longer worth continuing.

"Bloody advanced potions, bloody essay, bloody Snape…" Jules was muttering darkly to herself, as she along with Lana and Stacey existed the dungeons after a particularly gruelling double period.  
"What's the point anyway?" she said suddenly, stopping dead in her tracks, as if to address the heavens, "What is the bloody point? We're all going to fail, so why bother continuing? Why bother trying to navigate the eight circles of Hell? Why not give up now?"  
"It cant have been that bad?"  
"I got an E!!"  
"So, an E is an exceeds expectations? Don't you think your overreacting a bit?" said Stacey patiently.  
"An E??? Are you kidding me! I can't get into the ministry on an E, an E I tell you!" a passing Hufflepuff just having received his own essay glared at her, clearly wishing his 'T' would miraculously morph itself into an 'E'.  
"It's just one essay," Lana said timidly, noticing Jules angered expression, she hastily added, "I'm sure it has no bearing on your final grade, none at all!"  
_ok, enough of this, we're getting looks from the paintings… time to go…._  
Stacey took Jules by the elbow and Lana by the hand and proceeded to drag them to the common room, where Jules could rant away in peace.

_Argh, where is my stupid Charms work, shit! I can't have lost it… dammit! Where the hell did I leave it?_  
If you were to have walked into the Ravenclaw girls' seventh year dorms, you would have been greeted with an interesting sight. Stacey's bed was in disarray, half the contents of her trunk tipped out on to it, at this moment in time, she was riffling through her trunk cursing her uncharacteristic lack of organisation, suddenly struck by a thought she lunged over to her bed side table, yanked open the drawer and let out a cry of relief as she pulled out her notes. She quickly checked her watch, groaned in disbelief and made for the door, she suddenly stopped, swivelled round waved her wand at the pigsty that was her four-poster, and all of her trunks contents flew back to its home and began arranging itself. After admiring her now clutter free bed she came to her senses and ran pell-mell out of the door, down the stairs and through the common room exist, knocking a few first years out of the way.  
_Bugger, I'm going to be late…_  
Stacey skidded around the corner, a la Tom and Jerry, and ran down the corridor that would lead her to the library, she stopped just in front of the door, doubled and over and gasping for breath.  
"Alright there Lewis?"  
Stacey looked up, and grasped at Oliver's robe, "Sorry I'm late," she said in quick disjointed breaths, "I was looking for my notes, really sorry…" she waved them half heartedly and smiled apologetically.  
'No problem, besides you're only…" he checked his watch, "two minutes late."  
Stacey straightened up and walked into the library.  
"Anyways," Oliver said, lowering his voice as was custom when entering the place of learning, "Your lucky, if you had been on my team that would equate to 20 laps."  
"Isn't that a little extreme?"  
Oliver just shrugged, "Keeps them inline…"  
"Mmm, I'm surprised you managed to keep the twins in check without using a leash."  
"Ah! Believe me, I've been tempted."  
"I can imagine." Stacey replied dryly, "C'mon, we better get started."

An hour had passed, and surprisingly Oliver had not distracted Stacey and she had made some major headway concerning two charms. Oliver on the other hand, was less fortunate; he seemed somewhat preoccupied and kept glancing out of the window.  
_Bloody quidditch_  
"Oliver," Wood did not respond, merely sighed heavily, so Stacey tried again,  
"Oliver," she said this time, slightly more urgently, accompanied with a shake to his hand.  
"Mmhm?" he looked up at her, but not really seeing.  
"You'll do fine, you're a brilliant keeper and you have an amazing team."  
Oliver focused properly on her, and shook his head doubtfully, "I know I shouldn't have these kind of doubts, they've never let me down yet, it's just…"  
"You have to win, I get it…" she smiled, "I think the Charms can wait, we have quite a while before dinner, so lets say we get out of here?"

Minutes later Stacey had dragged Oliver out of the library, and was about to march down the corridor, when she faltered slightly, "Err, where do you propose we go, I mean its chucking it down outside, and really don't fancy getting soaked to the bone."  
"Mmm, quite a dilemma we are faced with, but I suppose we could walk around the castle."  
"Walk around the castle?"  
"Yup…"  
"Walk around the castle?"  
"Yes Lewis, I believe you are familiar with walking, you may have done it once or twice."  
Stacey growled,  
"Did you just growl?" Oliver asked  
"Your point?"  
"You growled!"  
"Again, your point being?"  
"You growled," Oliver drawled, savouring the words, he began walking, "It's kinda sexy."  
Stacey stood, staring and not quite focusing properly.  
"You coming or what?" Oliver yelled over his shoulder, you could almost hear his grin.  
"Oh… right" Stacey then ran forward and caught up with Oliver.

"I'm going to miss it," Stacey said quietly as she and Oliver made there way though the inner passage ways of Hogwarts, "Really miss it."  
"Hogwarts?"  
"Well, the Hogwarts experience, there's nothing quite like it."  
"That's for sure, I don't think there's anywhere else in the world where you find walls that pretend to be doors."  
"That happened to you too did it?"  
"Yeah, first year, Craig says I was almost in tears."  
"Tears?!" Stacey echoed loudly  
"Yeah go and shout if out for the whole school to hear! By all means tell every about my deep emotional moments in life."  
"Ah, of course we couldn't have people finding out that the big bad quidditch captain has feelings, now could we?"  
"Course not, cant be losing the mental edge I have on all my opponents can I?"  
"Quite…."  
"What?" asked Oliver, noticing Stacey's faltering tone.  
"Um…nothing…"  
"No really, what?"  
"I just, don't get your…passion for quiditch sometimes."  
Oliver chuckled slightly before saying, "After all, its just a game right?"  
"Well, yeah…"  
"That's the thing, it may be a game, but it's the game. There's nothing quite like the thrill of quidditch. There's just you, the posts, the quaffle and the chaser. When the chasers just a blur of yellow, green, blue… whatever. Right at that point, you're just focusing on protecting the hoops, nothing else matters."  
"Nothing else matters?"  
"Nothing, you just gotta stop the chaser from scoring."  
"Rather you than me…" replied Stacey, grimacing slightly  
"You don't like playing?"  
"Um, lets just say I can get from A to B on a broom just fine, as long as you're not in a hurry. And if you add catching and dodging balls into the mix, you pretty much got a recipe for disaster."  
Oliver laughed lightly, "So you don't fly?"  
"Nope, its called the flu network, plus there's always apparation."  
"Flying isn't just about getting from one place to another. There's a whole different dimension to it. Haven't you just gotten on a broom and flown about, going into free fall dives and pulling up at the last minute."  
Stacey laughed nervously, "Free fall huh? I told you, me, broomsticks and speed don't mix."  
"Ahh, so you're afraid?"  
"Yes…" Stacey whispered meekly  
Oliver laughed lightly, "Hey, don't worry, plenty of people don't like flying, but none of them have ever had the privilege of being taught by the one and only Oliver Wood."  
"Oh and I suppose if you were to teach me then I'd suddenly see the wonders of flying?"  
"Yeah, pretty much."  
"Well, save the aerial displays for the match flyboy:"  
"You don't trust me?"  
"Of course I trust you, it's the broom I don't trust, how can you hope that a broom, a piece of oak, mahogany, whatever, will hold you up?"  
"Well you put a lot more faith in that 12 inch wand made out of willow with a unicorn hair core."  
"My wand happens to be mahogany…"  
"Details, details," Wood uttered, "the point is, I don't see how you can not trust a broomstick, it was charmed by a wand, and it too, as you so wonderfully demonstrated is a piece of, wait for it, wood."  
_Bugger…_  
"Ok, fine, I get your point. Its all some irrational fear and I'll get over it with some intense hypnotherapy."  
"Hypnotherapy?"  
"Muggle treatment to deal with phobias…"  
"I really should have taken muggle studies, right?"  
"Might have been useful, but I think they spend more time talking about plugs."  
Oiver cocked his head to one side and raised a questioning eyebrow  
_Oh God he looks sexy when he does that…. Not again Lewis…_  
"Don't ask…"  
"I wasn't going to…"  
"That expression on your face begs to differ," Stacey glanced at her watch, "besides I think dinner should be starting soon, and I, for one, am very hungry."  
"Lead the way, fair lady," Oliver said with a flourish  
Stacey smiled at Wood and preceded to navigate their way to the hall, she stopped, noticing Oliver had yet to follow.  
"You coming or what?" mimicking Oliver's previous statement and action  
Oliver grinned and hurried after her.

The following morning the raging weather had not abated, in fact, when a number of Hogwarts students clad in thick travelling cloaks stepped out into the grounds it became apparent that the storm had reached new levels of ferocity. Stacey, Jules and Lana sheltered under an umbrella in an attempt to put a barrier between them and the relentless rain.  
"Please explain to me the need for us to bare the elements, and watch a quidditch game, in which there is not one Ravenclaw player!" asked a highly disgruntled Jules  
"Where else is Stace gonna get her Oliver Wood fix?' replied Lana lightly, earning her a glare from Stacey and an appreciative smile from Jules.  
"Ah yes, the fearless, dashingly handsome, Gryffindor captain."  
_Bloody Jules…_  
Stacey gave her two companions a look that would have shrivelled grapes, "You do realise I have other friends that are playing today, and besides, the outcome of this match will have bearing on Ravenclaw's position in the competition."  
_HA! See, I'm not just watching for Oliver…_  
"So Wood's a friend now? No longer just acquaintances?" asked Lana innocently  
"I suppose we are friends of sorts, I mean there's no point bickering with each other, it would just be unproductive and we would never get anything done."  
"Ah, so it's all for the sake of your Charms project?" inquired Jules  
"Yes, for our Charms project."  
_Exactly, we're friends because of Charms, thats it…_  
Jules snorted in disbelief, "Yeah, I'm sure."  
The three girls in the space of their conversation had managed to negotiate the path down to the Quidditch pitch, no easy feet with a cumbersome umbrella and the buffeting winds.  
Having dried out their respective seats, the three Ravenclaws sat down to enjoy the quidditch match. As the teams marched onto the pitch and the two captains of Diggory and Wood approached each other to shake hands, Jules, Lana and Stacey all let out appreciative sighs, "Diggory may be young, but you must admit he really is easy on the eyes." Jules muttered  
Lana nodded mutely, Stacey meanwhile was focusing on Oliver's expression of fierce determination. His gaze of intense focus told anyone that he wanted nothing more than to win the Cup.

By the time the match had started the rain was throwing it down as hard as ever, the players were nothing more than murky blurs, and the crowd could just about hear the voice of Lee Jordan keeping them up to date with the score line. There appeared to be no end in sight as the two seekers had yet to make a move for the golden snitch.  
"How much longer do you think they'll be at it?" came Lana's voice, Stacey had no chance to reply as at this point, both Diggory and Potter had launched themselves into dives, towards what was presumably the snitch.

It was as if the rest of the game had stopped, everyone was staring at the two players, but there was a sudden dip in mood, the intense feeling of cold that Stacey had only once experience threatened to engulf her again, she looked towards the pitch and saw hundreds of Dementors swarming onto the grass. Jules let out a scream and pointed towards a figure that was falling through the air.

Then Dumbledore was among them, repelling the foul creatures and waving his wand towards the stricken player.  
"My God, its Potter."


	6. Chapter 6

The game was over. Hufflepuff had won. The students began to slowly file back to the castle, all disbelieving, all fearing the worst. Stacey lost Jules and Lana in the crowd, knowing they would eventually get back to the common room she took a longer route in attempt to avoid the mass movement of people. As she made her way down one of Hogwarts many corridors, Stacey stopped and slowly turned towards the window and looked out to see the torrential rain pouring down onto the grounds. She has always found listening to the rain soothing and today was no different, she moved towards the window and laid her hot forehead against the cold glass, breathing in deeply as she did so. Stacey wasn't sure what time it was when she made it back to the common room, Jules and Lana were no where to be found, presumably they were down at dinner. Having no wish to join them Stacey once again struck out on a walk around Hogwarts, having no particular destination she found herself in front of a curious portrait, the subject of the painting at this point in time appeared to be challenging several students to a dual. Having once taken in her bearings Stacey soon realised she must be standing in front of the entrance way to Gryffindor's common room and the knight that was currently defying all, was the replacement for the Fat Lady. She smiled at Sir Cadogen's antics as he momentarily forgot his position and attempted to follow the retreating students.

"Lewis?"  
_Bugger! Don't bloody scare me…_  
Stacey turned to the person addressing her, she stared at the floor, noting the muddy brown boots, her eyes trailed up and saw the scarlet colours of Gryffindor, looking up further her gaze locked with the chocolate brown eyes of Oliver Wood. He looked incredibly worse for wear, and the expression he wore was of extreme dejection, understandable as his star seeker had taken a fifty-foot fall and Hufflepuff had made history in defeating Gryffindor.  
"Err…" Stacey looked at him hesitantly; she then added, "Um…how's Potter?"  
"Harry? He's fine…" Oliver petered off, "I haven't actually seen him yet…" noticing Stacey's look he said, "the rest of the team went!"  
Oliver then sighed deeply running his hand through his hair, this action only heightened the I-just-got-out-of-bed-and-I-don't-know-how-sexy-I-look-right-now look.  
Stacey grinned nervously and on an impulse laid her hand on Oliver's lower arm.  
"It's not the end of the world you know…"  
Oliver gave a hollow laugh, Stacey suddenly glared, Oliver slightly taken aback by this looked at her sharply.  
"Right, get your arse into your common room, get showered and then you're coming down with me to get something to eat."  
Oliver looked slightly nonplussed as Stacey frog-marched him to the portrait, muttered the password and forced him up into the entrance of the common room.  
"How do you know our password?" Oliver inquired having regained use of his voice  
"Privilege of being Head girl Wood. Now, up!"  
"I'm going, I'm going…."  
"Good, and be quick about it."  
Stacey stood at the foot of the stairs waiting for Wood to re-immerge, she looked at her watch impatiently, dinner would be almost done. Even now some Gyrffindor's were trickling back into their common room and giving her slightly odd looks, as it wasn't every day you saw the Head girl standing around as if she were a piece of installation art.  
"Stace! You sure you got the right Common Room?" The inquirers arm was then slung over her shoulder, jolted from her thoughts Stacey looked to her side and noted the offending arm belonged to none other than George Weasley.  
"No, I got the right common room…"  
"Ah, so you've finally cracked" George said, nodding sagely  
"Cracked?" came Stacey's reply  
"Yeah cracked," added a new voice to the conversation, George's twin and fellow prankster Fred, "all that intellectual, high-brow talk in the Ravenclaw common room, got all too much for you to bear. So you came to our humble common room in search for some light-hearted humour"  
Stacey sighed and feigned deep concentration "Ye-No. I'm here for something entirely different"  
"Oh so that's what you wanted. Some red hot monkey love courtesy of moi…" George grinned cheekily at her. Stacey narrowed her eyes. At this moment in time Oliver finally came down from the boys' dorms, Stacey eyes flicked towards the stairs and followed Oliver course down the steps as he took them two at a time.  
"More like some red hot monkey love courtesy of Oliver," Fred commented noticing Stacey's gaze.  
"Always the way isn't it?" George sighed, "Whenever that stud muffin comes around Miss Lewis simply goes all a flutter." Stacey elbowed him in the side.  
"Fred, George, Stacey." Oliver greeted them in a deep baritone "How's Harry?" he added to the twins.  
"Oh he's fine considering he fell, what, 50 foot?" came George's reply  
"He's as bad as you Ollie, beating himself up about it and all…" said Fred "But we shall leave you two together, I believe we are wanted," Fred motioned to a beckoning Lee Jordan.  
"Am I now sufficiently clean Miss Lewis?" Oliver asked when the twins had settled themselves down next to Lee.  
'You'll do," came Stacey's reply  
"Mmm… seems to me you only think me adequate, and you know how I dislike being average"  
"Well, for the time being I think you're going to have to deal with it Oliver. C'mon dinner's over, I think we're going to have to pay a visit to the kitchens"  
Oliver managed a grin at the prospect of food and followed Stacey out through the portrait hole and down into the bowels of the castle.

"So tell me, is the knowing the route to the kitchens another one of the many perks that come with the head girl-ship?"  
"Nah, not this one, I kept on asking Fred and George how I could get in."  
"Ah yes, the twins, they seem to know where everything is in this castle, I wouldn't be surprised if they have a map."  
Further conversation was momentarily cut short as they reached the painting depicting the bowl of fruit.  
"Would you do the honours?" Oliver asked as he gestured to the painting. Stacey gave a mock curtsey and reached out to gently tickle the pear, she then grabbed the green door handle that was now visible and pushed open the door into the kitchens of Hogwarts. As with every other visit both of them had made to the immense kitchens they were accosted by a number of house elves all wanting to give them a number of gastronomic delights.  
"Can we be helping you Miss?" came a voice from the vicinity of Stacey waist  
"Oh, right yeah sure, the two of us just missed dinner and we were hoping if you could get us something."  
No sooner had Stacey finished her sentence several trays of food came zooming towards them, each one borne by two eager house-elves.  
"Will these being doing Miss?" asked one of the house-elves carrying the tray, looking up at Stacey expectantly.  
"I'm sure they'll be fine." Answered Oliver for Stacey, the house-elf beamed and lead them in the direction of a sturdy wooden table.  
Stacey and Oliver took their seats opposite each other and dug into the scrumptious spread the house-elves had provided.  
"Do you do this often?" Oliver asked once they had begun their meal in earnest.  
"What, eat?"  
Oliver looked at her oddly, "Well yes eat, but I meant do you come down to the kitchens often?"  
_Idiot!_  
"Right…" Stacey laughed softly at her own stupidity, "huh, its probably an abuse of position and all but I tend to come down late in the evenings for a cup of cocoa."  
Oliver smiled lightly as if remembering a private memory, "when I was little, I was scared of thunder storms, 'specially at night, I used to run into my parents room and throw my self under their bed covers, Mum used to let me stay there for a bit but then she'd take me downstairs and put me up onto the kitchen counter and make me a big mug of cocoa."  
"Mmmm, cocoa seems to have this incredible quality, it makes everything seem that little bit better. Although it could just be chocolate in general."  
Oliver nodded his ascent " This is good, you oughta try it," with that he placed a pile of the steaming delicacy onto his fork and reached over the table with it. Stacey put her hand over Oliver's and guided the fork to her mouth; it was an oddly intimate moment as their eyes remained locked over the table.  
_Huh… eyes… got bloody nice eyes…_  
Stacey squeaked slightly, "yeah, really good. Nice and… creamy."  
"Yeah, the Hogwarts house-elves sure know how to cook."  
Stacey looked hesitantly at Oliver, "You know its not over, you don't have to win the cup undefeated, it all depends on point margins."  
Oliver put down his fork and slouched forwards slightly, "I know, but it really puts us at a disadvantage it all depends on the other teams' performances and that's completely out of my control."  
"Oliver! Enough of the self doubt, it will be fine, your team will pull through, you'll pull through…"  
"Even at the expense of Ravenclaw?"  
Stacey smiled grimly, "As long as that brainless git Flint doesn't get the satisfaction of Slytherin winning, even if it means Ravenclaw has to lose. Then so be it."  
"Brainless git?"  
"Best I could come up with on such short notice, us Ravenclaws can't be brilliant all the time you know."  
"Uh huh…" Oliver said sceptically  
Stacey responded the only way she knew how, she stuck her tongue out at him.  
"Ah, is this a demonstration of your brilliant intellect?"  
Stacey snorted, "Oh shut up and eat your food."  
They both fell into as comfortable silence as they finished their respective meals.

After constantly insisting they were full and couldn't possibly eat another bite to the over eager house-elves, Stacey and Oliver eventually left the warm and inviting room that was the kitchen. The two slowly walked away from the painting hiding the entrance to the kitchens and towards the great hall and the main entrance to the castle. Having reached the entrance hall Stacey stopped, "Well I have to go this way," she gestured to a corridor. Noticing Oliver's lack of a response Stacey looked up at the quidditch player; his eyes were glinting impishly in the torch light, he grinned, pulling her closer to him as he did so. Stacey's breath caught in her throat as she noted his loosened collar and mussed hair. Oliver cupped her face with both his hands, his thumb slowly rubbing her cheek as he lent down towards her and planted a light kiss on her lips. As Oliver pulled away Stacey was left with a slight smile on her mouth, she closed her eyes and gestured wildly over her shoulder.  
"Well, like I said, I have to um, go…" she muttered faintly.  
"Not quite yet Lewis," Oliver's voice took on a slightly more firm tone as he pulled her towards him, Stacey's breathing quickened and her eyes snapped open as she felt Oliver's arm snake around her waist, holding her firmly in position.  
"I really have to…"she stuttered  
"Excuses, excuses Miss Lewis," Oliver muttered his breath tickling her neck; Stacey closed her eyes, and sunk further into his embrace.  
"I suppose I could stay," she said weakly. Oliver smiled and kissed her once more in the torch lit corridor.

As Oliver pulled away, Stacey blinked several times, her body still held against his. Stacey managed to wriggle free and she stood in front of Oliver and opened her mouth hesitantly as if to say something, "So, um…I should be going. I'll see you later." With that Stacey turned around and with every intention of heading towards the Ravenclaw common room. She suddenly stopped in the middle of the corridor as if debating something.  
_Ahh, what am I doing? Move woman… move…just pick up you foot and walk…_  
A sudden resolve gripped Stacey as she then turned towards Oliver and rushed forward when reaching the Gryffindor she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down into a searing kiss.  
"I thought you were going?" Oliver asked, grinning rakishly once she had broken the embrace.  
"Oh, you know me," Stacey said breathlessly, "can't keep away…"

Having eventually left Oliver and made her way back to the Ravenclaw Common Room, Stacey went up to her dorm room carefully opening the door and closing it softly behind her, she then proceeded to collapse onto the bed. She closed her eyes and took in a deep contented breath; her eyes opened warily as the door to her dormitory flew open and two bodies piled on top of hers.  
"So, where you been?" Jules asked casually whilst picking at Stacey bedspread  
"Mmhm, we missed you at dinner…" added Lana, sneaking a look at Stacey as she did so.  
"Oh, I was just around…" came Stacey's evasive answer  
"Around? Not with anyone in particular where you?" Lana prodded further, not satisfied with Stacey's reply. Stacey to her credit gave a noncommittal shrug.  
_Heh, they aren't going to get anything out of me…_  
Jules studied her nails and carelessly added, "The Gyffindor Quidditch team eventually came down, you know after visiting Potter and all. Didn't see Wood though, you don't know anything about that do you?"  
Stacey looked at Jules and once more shrugged, Jules rolled her eyes, 'Oh c'mon, don't play dumb with us… we know you two were together!"  
_Ok… they know something... or at least suspect... It's no big deal… I can totally tell them…_  
Stacey sighed heavily, "We may have been together…"  
"I knew it!" crowed Jules as she thumped the air with her fist.  
"So waddya do?" asked Lana sensing a story.  
Stacey rolled over, her face buried in her pillow, "oh nothing much, buthemayhavekissedme…" she rushed out.  
Jules and Lana shared a look, "Kissed you huh?" Lana asked lightly  
Stacey suddenly sat up and scrambled off the bed and walked towards the door "Uh huh…"  
Jules leapt off the bed and ran towards the only exist, effectively blocking it, "In the flobberworms section?" she asked raising an eyebrow.  
"No! The entrance hall…"  
Resigned to the fact that neither Jules or Lana were going to let it go, Stacey sighed and proceeded to tell them about her running into Wood and the subsequent evening they had spent together.

As with every other breakfast Stacey poured herself her regular cup of coffee and mentally prepared herself for the day ahead, today would be the first Charms lesson she would have with Oliver since that fateful evening.  
"Stace, can you pass me the butter?"  
"Sure Roger," Stacey yawned widely, as she passed him the butter dish "excuse me, I'm just really tired." She managed to add before another yawn consumed her.  
Roger nodded sympathetically, "Cant say I'm looking forward to the final NEWT year"  
"Yeah, I hope your not doing advanced potions, I spent most of last night doing an insanely long essay for Snape."  
"Cutting it a bit short?"  
"I had head girl stuff, and transfiguration homework and just a lot of work…"  
Roger nodded understandingly, but as if struck by a sudden thought he exclaimed, "Damn, that reminds me, I have to do the work McGonagall set, got quidditch tonight and basically every other night until the Hufflepuff match."  
Noticing that both Jules and Lana were done Stacey quickly finished the remainder of her breakfast and rose, "Good luck with training…" Roger nodded a quick good bye and Stacey along with Jules and Lana exited the hall.

Having struggled through half the day the trio of Ravenclaws made their way down the charms corridor and into Professor Flitwick's domain. Stacey noted Oliver's presence at their shared desk and stopped slightly in the doorframe, Jules shoved her forward, "Get in already!"  
Stacey gathered her wits, breathed in deeply and walked towards her allotted desk, misjudging her direction and momentum Stacey collided lightly with the desk, biting down as curse she smiled nervously at Oliver. "Hi!' she exclaimed her voice rising several octaves.  
_Stop acting like a demented parrot and sit down…_  
"Hey," came Oliver's easy reply, but any further conversation was cut short with the entrance of Flitwick and the commencement of the lesson.  
_Concentrate Lewis, stop looking at Oliver! Focus on what Professor Flitwick is saying!_  
Stacey looked down at her desk, up towards her head of house and then back down at her notes.  
"Now then class, I would like you all to take in turn to practise the incantation I just taught you." Squeaked Professor Flitwick he then gestured for the class to continue and sat down behind his desk.  
"So, um… do you want to go first?" Stacey asked Oliver, pointing at the Oil lamp they were supposed to be charming.  
"Yeah sure," he looked over at Stacey, she smiled back at him hesitantly, "Are you ok?" he asked leaning towards her, his knee brushing up against hers.  
Stacey let out an odd noise, "Stacey?" Oliver asked again, his eyes full of inquiry and concern. Stacey nodded mutely  
_Oh God... what is wrong with me? It was just a kiss, no big deal… oh who am I kidding?!_  
Oliver looked at her uncertainly before saying, "What happened the other day… I didn't mean. No, I did mean to, but if you didn't and…" Oliver petered off looking bashful.  
"No!" Stacey exclaimed before she could stop herself, "I did mean it… I mean I've be wanting to do it for a while, just you know never did, and when you did it, you scared me, so I didn't know what to do but you did mean it so it doesn't matter that I didn't know that you meant it so…" Stacey blushed,  
_What was that? Was I hit by a babbling hex and didn't realise? Try making sense this time woman!_   
"Sorry," she laughed apologetically, she glanced down at her knees, "What I mean to say is that, I did mean to do it and in all honesty, I'd probably do it again." Stacey bit her lip lightly and looked up at Oliver from beneath the hair that had fallen into her face.  
"Do it again huh?"  
Stacey glared at him good-naturedly, "If you're lucky it just might happen," realising what she had just said she coughed to cover up her discomfort. She then gestured once more to the oil lamp, "Now if you please Mr Wood."

The rest of the lesson passed by fairly uneventfully, with the exception of one Gryffindor accidentally setting his entire oil lamp ablaze providing an interesting pyrotechnic display. When it was time to leave Stacey grabbed her books and stuffed them into her bag and got up slowly, stalling for time.  
"So, are you free this evening? Because we kinda have to finish off the project."  
"Um yeah pretty much, I'll come get you after dinner?" Oliver replied.  
"Ok, cool," she nodded her head, Stacey looked around the room noting the obvious lack of two people, Lana and Jules.  
_Sneaky sods…_  
"Ah, it appears I have been deserted."  
"Well then, will the fair lady allow me to escort her to her common room?"  
"Why not," Stacey bated her eyelashes playfully and gave her arm to Oliver. He then proceeded to lead her out of the classroom, having reached the main hallway on the third floor Oliver added, "Not very knightly and noble of me, but there's one problem, I'm not sure where the Ravenclaw common room is."  
Stacey laughed, "C'mon its this way!" with that she grabbed his hand and lead him through a series of passage ways and winding staircases, eventually standing outside a none descript door, it would have been entirely unremarkable if it weren't for the ancient brass knocker in the form of a stately eagle.  
"Here we are…" Stacey exclaimed as she reached out and took the brass eagle in hand and knocked once, the beak of the eagle opened and posed the question "What came first, the phoenix or the flame?" **(1)**  
Stacey thought for a moment before replying, " I think the answer is that a circle has no beginning." The door swung open after hearing Stacey's answer, which was evidently to its liking.  
"Wait here, I'll be back in a minute." Stacey shot over her shoulder at Oliver before she disappeared into the Ravenclaw Common Room.

After having looked around for Jules and Lana and finding no trace of them save the book bags they left stashed in their dorm room Stacey pushed open the exit to the common room, revealing Oliver leaning casually against the wall, he grinned at her when she re-emerged her charms work hastily gathered under her arm.  
"To the Great Hall?" Oliver questioned, still in the mode of the noble knight.  
"To the Great Hall." Stacey echoed.

As Oliver deposited Stacey at the Ravenclaw table and smiled at her before moving towards his own house's table, Stacey noted Lana and Jules eyeing her beadily from behind a large jug of pumpkin juice.  
"So, where did you guys disappear to after Charms?"  
"Infirmary…" the two girls stated  
"The infirmary?" Stacey repeated incredulously  
"Err yes, I was struck down by a terrible fit of ague" Jules embellished, "Lana had to almost carry me up, such was the severity of my condition."  
_Ahhh… the old 'I was struck down with ague' ploy…_  
"Ague huh? Must have been real bad right? Almost collapsing and all." The two girls nodded fiercely, "But you're all better now?"  
"Yeah, sure. Well, it wasn't that bad…" Jules replied.  
Stacey narrowed her eyes, and then giving up the pretence of annoyance, sighed deeply, "Where do you guys come up with the stuff?"  
"Are you calling me a liar Lewis?" Jules asked, sitting up straighter and attempting to look more menacing.  
"Maybe I am…" was Stacey nonchalant reply.  
"Do you know what happens to people when they call me a liar?" Jules asked again, trying to leer and growl. Stacey just snorted in response, which then resulted in the two other girls cracking up into fits of giggles. Once their bout of laughter subsided Stacey looked at both of them, "Am I right in guessing you sudden departure from the classroom was to get me and Oliver alone together?"  
Lana replied for both of them, "Well, you two look so cute together and we were just giving you a shove in the right direction."  
Stacey laughed, "Uh huh," Lana's eyes light up, "No nothing happened, but thanks anyways."

The three girls resumed there dinner, a steady flow of light banter had their conversation coming to an abrupt halt every so often in order for them to let free a stream of giggles.  
Having just about finished with desert Stacey looked up and saw the tall figure of Oliver cutting a way through the crowds of people towards the Ravenclaw table.  
_Oh, he looks bloody gorgeous…. Sex on legs…_  
"Ready Stacey?" Oliver asked when he had reached Stacey & co. Lana burst into a fit of giggles and Jules whispered something into her ear in an attempt to make her shut up.  
"Uh, yeah, just about…" Lana's laughter punctuated the end of Stacey's statement.  
Jules just rolled her eyes, addressing Wood, "Ignore her, she hasn't taken her evening medication."  
Stacey smiled and got up to leave with Oliver, as the two of them were at the door, Oliver glanced over his shoulder seeing Lana still doubled up in now silent mirth he asked Stacey, "Is she always like that?"  
"Um yeah, to varying degrees."

An hour later, both Oliver and Stacey sat at a table with books piled high, both having made significant headway in the project that was due in December for Flitwick. In fact Stacey just had one more piece of information to look up, as such she rose from her seat and headed down to the aisle on experimental charms which was located towards the back of the library. Unbeknown to her a few moments later Oliver also got up from the table and headed towards that same section. So it was to be expected when Stacey felt someone's arms grab her around the middle and someone's laughter tickle the back of the neck she shrieked out in shock, earning a scandalised "Shh!" from Madame Pince's desk.  
Stacey turned herself around and found her self nose to nose with Oliver, "Whoops…" she said, and laughed quietly. Oliver looked down at her, his mouth inches from hers.  
_…brains turned to mush.. again… I suppose I could…_  
"Sorry about that," Oliver whispered, "didn't mean to scare you. Just that I couldn't help but…" Stacey cut him off as she crossed the gap between them and engaged him in a slow sensual kiss. Stacey's hand moved up to Oliver's hair and he pushed her gently back towards the bookshelf, eliciting a slight bump and a small giggle from Stacey. Oliver broke off; his breathing slightly heavy as he looked at Stacey, his chocolate brown eyes flitting over her face, noting her flushed cheeks and glinting eyes, he almost smiled at her obvious disarray. He looked down suddenly, as if stealing himself to do something, "So, um you know there's usually a Hogsmeade trip before the end of term, I was wondering, seeing as we you know… well I was wondering if you would like to go? With me, that is."  
Stacey looked at him, "Mmm," she tapped her chin feigning indecisiveness, she suddenly broke into a grin, "Of course I'll go with you." Stacey then gave him a light kiss on the cheek and picked up a book she had been reading before Oliver's distraction. "C'mon, we've got charms to finish." With that she sashayed off towards the table she had come from, Oliver groaned, but quickly followed suit, a smile firmly fixed on his face.

**AN: (1) taken from 'The Deathly Hallows'**


	7. Chapter 7

The month of November was now drawing to a close and the Christmas Holidays were fast approaching, students hurried from classroom to classroom in an order to escape the freezing passageways and whenever a class ventured down into the dungeons they were hit with a wall of bitterly cold air and were forced to huddle around their cauldrons in an attempt to stay warm and stave off the encroaching cold.  
"You know, I really don't understand why they don't install some sort of heating system down there," Jules muttered angrily as she sank into an armchair trying to rub some life into her hands after a particularly gruelling and not to mention cold potions lesson.  
"They do have the fires …" Lana replied pulling out several rolls of parchment, unfurling them and unscrewing a pot of ink.  
"Yeah, but not everywhere, I think I'm going to have to cast a permanent heating charm on my robes." Stacey interjected.  
At this comment Jules smiled wickedly, "Oh I don't think you need a heating charm, after all you do have Oliver to snuggle up to…"_  
Snuggling huh?_  
"Yup, reckon you and Oliver will be doing some serious canoodling tonight," Lana nodded knowledgably whilst dipping her quill into the ink well and commencing work on her essay. Stacey rolled her eyes, "There are some details we have to figure out on the charms work…"  
"Phfft," Lana waved her hand airily, thankfully not the hand holding her quill as neither Jules nor Stacey felt like being showered with ink. "That'll take what, ten minutes? And then you two will be there in the library, lamps flickering and you'll suddenly catch his eye across the table and bam! You'll be on each other like animals." Lana tailed off and looked in the distance with an almost wistful look.  
_Animals? I've got way more self control than that.. heh… I'll show her… well no I obviously wont **show** her…._  
"Besides," Jules piped up, "There's always the Hogsmeade visit this weekend and we all know what happens in Madam Puddifoots…"  
_oh there is no way in hell am I setting foot in that place…_  
"Do I look like the kind of person that wants to sit in a fluffy, pink coffee shop?"  
Lana sniffed, "Cho thinks very highly of Madame Puddifoots…"  
Jules snorted, "Ah let it go Lana, anyways I reckon Stace will drag him off to the Shrieking Shack," she giggled, then doing a passable imitation of a swooning woman she added, "Oh hold me, you big manly quidditch player, you…"  
Stacey threw a cushion at Jules and glared at her playfully, "enough messing around, I actually want to do something in this free period, like start and finish this potions essay."  
"You threw the cushion!" Stacey narrowed her eyes at Jules  
"Ok, ok, to potions then."

Having thoroughly exhausted themselves with their potions work Lana, Stacey and Jules left the Ravenclaw common room and rushed down to the Great Hall for what promised to be an excellent meal. Just as Stacey was about to enter through the main doors she felt a hand slip casually into hers. She noted Jules and Lana walking on with out her, sharing a look. Stacey smiled to herself and squeezed Oliver's hand, looking up as she did so.  
"Good evening Miss Lewis, I hope I find you well?" came Oliver's smooth voice.  
"Very well indeed, and you Mr Wood?" Oliver grinned brashly at her.  
"I'm great," he leant down whispering into her ear; "see you in the library, the advanced charms section." With that he placed a chaste kiss on her temple and walked off towards his fellow Gryffindors leaving Stacey standing under the threshold to the hall like an idiot.  
_Huh, Oliver… perfect sexy male specimen with broad shoulders and…Stoppit. FOCUS! Move… blocking the doorway Lewis…_  
Hurrying towards her house's table she quickly sandwiched herself in between Jules and Lana and pilled food on to her plate, smiling to herself all the while. Looking either side of her she could not but fail to see that her two companions were not eating, in fact there was a very obvious lack of food on their plates and very obvious smirks on their faces.  
"So making plans for your secret assignation?" Jules inquired taking a delicate slip of pumpkin juice.  
"The flobberworms section?" Lana added lightly  
"Advanced charms," Stacey replied acidly, "are you two going to eat or would you rather spend the rest of the evening grinning at me like the Cheshire cat?"  
Lana looked at her puzzled and pulled a Stacey's-lost-it face at Jules, "What have cats got to do with it?"  
_Right, forgot pureblood…_  
"I was making reference to a muggle book…but that's neither here nor there, you gonna eat something?" Both Lana and Jules needed no further encouragement and proceeded to dig in.

Half an hour later Stacey having bid her fellow Ravenclaws goodnight made her way down the echoing corridors to the quiet and relative warmth of the library. Poking her head around the doorway she peeked into the gloomy room and noted a few sixth years bent over scrolls of parchment, scribbling away furiously. Stacey pushed open the door fully and walked down several aisles, the further she delved into the bowels of the library the darker and less illuminated it became. Sighing she pulled out her wand and waved it at a nearby oil lamp which flared to life in response. Dumping her book bag on the nearest table Stacey plonked herself down into a chair, kicking off her shoes she pulled out her hair-tie running her hands through her messy tresses as she did so.  
"Nice, I'm really digging the birds nest look," came an amused voice behind Stacey.  
"Oh you know, I try my best…" Stacey said primly, patting her hair lightly. Oliver then came into view as he lowered himself with casual ease into the seat opposite her and loosened his tie.  
"No really, its uh…" Oliver let out a small laugh, Stacey's eyes narrowed, coughing slightly he continued, "very, unique. Very attractive"  
"Somehow I don't believe you." Stacey returned  
"No really it is, but I suppose its going to have to take some convincing right?"  
Stacey looked at him, one eyebrow raised in question, Oliver licked his lips and nodded as he leaned forward, whispering in her ear, "you look," he placed a light kiss on her cheek, "very," a second kiss on her other cheek, "very," he kissed her lightly on the crown of her forehead, he paused. "Attractive" he muttered his mouth centimetres from hers, and with no further ado his lips were on hers in an all-consuming kiss.  
"Proof enough?" Oliver asked, grinning when he broke off the kiss.  
Stacey swallowed and bit her lip, "Oh it'll do, for now. But really we ought to be doing some charms work, don't you think Mr Wood? And besides we're not even in the flobberworms section."  
Oliver chuckled slightly, "You kill me you know that?"  
Stacey flashed him an uncharacteristic smirk, "Oh I know I do, but I think you can manage a little bit of charms."

True to Lana's prediction the pair of seventh years only needed ten minutes to finish off the project and it was with a flourish the Stacey wrote her name on the piece of parchment.  
"All done then?"  
"All done," Stacey smiled and leaned back in her seat sighing to herself, "Can't say I'm not glad to see the end of that. I'll just put this book away, be back." Stacey then grabbed the offending book off the table, ignoring her shoes she tiptoed on the cold stone floor towards the correct shelf. Humming a familiar tune to herself she put the useful tome back in its allotted place and once again tiptoed across the library floor. Suddenly two arms shot out and grabbed her round her waist and a small gasp escaped her mouth.  
_I seem to have been attacked a lot recently…_  
Stacey then found her self in Oliver's lap her legs hanging over the arm of the chair.  
_Not that I'm complaining_  
"Any reason why you felt the need to do that?" Stacey asked, feigning anger  
"Oh, you looked somewhat unsteady, didn't want to take any unnecessary risks."  
"Unnecessary risks? So instead you give me a heart attack?"  
"You know you really are going to have to overcome this," Oliver said in a serious tone "We cant have you experiencing heart problems whenever you come into close proximity to me."  
"I told you it's your animal magnetism," Stacey sighed dramatically "I really can't help myself. But the question is what are we to do about it?"  
"Well, I think the only way to go about this is for you to spend as much time with me as possible, so you become desensitised so to speak." Oliver pulled Stacey closer to him, "How's this? Feeling any heart palpitations coming on?"  
"Mmm, I think you're going to have come a lot closer than that."  
"Closer, huh?" Oliver smiled at the prospect; he leaned in towards her, his eyes smouldering. Stacey breathed in deeply taking in Oliver's scent, she stuttered nervously, "Oh I think they're coming on again."  
"You don't sound very sure." Oliver murmured his voice low and gravely, his mouth grazing her neck.  
Stacey swallowed, "Oh they're there." She felt Oliver smile, brushing his lips softly against her neck and trailing butterfly kisses up to her jaw. Stacey sighed as Oliver's lips found their way to her own.

"You know," Stacey muttered, between each small kiss, "I never thought, I'd be one of those girls who spends their spare time sneaking around in the back of the library."  
Oliver backed up slightly, "Oh this isn't sneaking, although I do happen to know the flobberworms section is only a few rows back, so…" Oliver grinned at her and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.  
_Bloody hell... is the entire population of Hogwarts a bunch of completely over sexed teenagers??_  
Stacey grinned lightly and bent down, her mouth hovering inches away from Oliver's ear, her hair falling across her face "The flobberworms section huh?" her voice came out low, dripping with sugar, "Oh but you see Oliver, I've always had this fantasy involving the quidditch locker rooms and my very own captain." Stacey broke off, noticing Oliver's now wide-eyed expression, "But as you seem to have this odd fixation with the flobberworms section, I'm sure Roger will be willing to oblige."  
Oliver eyes locked with hers, he let out a sudden growl, and grabbed Stacey once more around the waist, causing Stacey to shriek out as he picked her up and placed her on the table. Oliver's chocolate brown eyes bored into Stacey's, causing her breathing to quicken once more at the intense gaze she was faced with.  
"What's to stop me from ravishing you right here?"  
Stacey's eyes flicked over Oliver's shoulder and she muttered "Madame Pince?"  
Oliver snorted, "Madame Pince my arse…."  
"Leaving your bottom out of this conversation Mr Wood. I think a sense of propriety would do you good at times like these."  
The change in Oliver's demeanour was startling, and would have been amusing if the situation hadn't had been so awkward. Blushing a furious shade of red, he straightened up immediately and coughed lightly turning towards Madame Pince with what he hoped to be a winning smile.  
_Oh good God… I've been caught by a teacher... she's going to tell Flitwick, then he'll tell Dumbledore, who'll tell my parents... oh God... I may as well pack my bags... Mium's going to home school me… and lock me away till I'm thirty..._  
Noticing Madame Pince's withering look and taking into account her previous comment about propriety Oliver adopted a more sober expression.  
"Miss Lewis, I'd appreciate it if you left this sort of behaviour out of my library, I really expected much better of the Head Girl. If you and Mr Wood would be on your way." The schools hawk like librarian looked at them imperiously, "Now scoot!"

Stacey hastily jumped off the table, grabbed her bag followed by Oliver's hand and pulled hard only letting go once they were safely out of the library and several corridors away.  
"If I lose my head girl ship and end up being brought back home by my Mother, mark my words Wood, you will pay." Stacey enunciated each word with a hard poke to Oliver's chest.  
Oliver looked down at Stacey; he nodded solemnly, "I'm really sorry Stacey." The tall quidditch captain paused and breathed in deeply, "But, I did tell you the flobberworms section would have been better."  
Stacey let out a strangled yell and turned on her heel shouting over her shoulder, "Flobberworms section my arse!"  
"Ah Stacey," Oliver said grabbing her hand as he did so.  
_Damn his long legs and quidditch playing induced fitness_  
"You're not going to lose your badge, if anything I think Dumbledore will find the whole thing very amusing." The frown on Stacey's brow lessened, and Oliver leaned forward resting his forehead against hers. "I think we've had enough excitement for one night."  
Stacey nodded, cocked her head to one side and held out her hand, "Walk me to my dorm?"

As the first term of the year was drawing to a close, the weekend of the last Hogsmeade visit before the Christmas holidays was upon every third year student and up. The morning of the trip Stacey, Jules and Lana all came down into the Great Hall to get in a hearty breakfast before the outing.  
"I reckon," Jules began just as the three sat down opposite Roger Davis and his 'posse', "I reckon the Hogwarts administration must have cut a deal with all the traders in Hogsmeade, so that they'd arrange a trip close to Christmas so we can all do our Christmas shopping."  
"So?" Lana replied, cereal spoon half way to her mouth.  
"Its like they're forcing us to buy our gifts there."  
"What do you have against helping small businesses?' Stacey questioned.  
"I'd hardly call Madame Malkins a small business."  
"Fine, Madam Malkins aside…"  
"If you feel so strongly about it, don't buy any presents from Hogsmeade." Interjected Lana.  
"Maybe I wont!" came Jules declaration.  
Both Stacey and Lana nodded, and went back to the serious business of eating.  
"How long do you reckon she last?" Roger Davis leaned over to ask the two girls as Jules was engaged in conversation with a Ravenclaw fourth year.  
"10 minutes," both Stacey and Lana replied with no hesitation.  
"Really, I was going for more like five." Roger smiled as he shook his head; "I'll see you girls later."  
As Roger rose from the table with a wink, Stacey lent back and quietly sipped her morning coffee.  
"So, today's the day, huh?" Jules interrupted Stacey's mulling having finished up with the Ravenclaw fourth year.  
"Ah, yes the long awaited date with Mr Wood," Lana added.  
"You guys seem way more excited about this than I do…" Stacey muttered under her breath.  
"What was that?" Jules asked cheerily  
"Nothing, nothing… well c'mon I need to grab a coat from the dorms"

With that the three seventh years followed Roger up to the Ravenclaw tower and their dormitory.  
"So where are you guys meeting?" Lana asked when Stacey had found a suitable coat and they were descending the steps into the common room.  
"Oh he said he'd meet me in the Entrance Hall."  
"Ok, cool…" Jules muttered, "Oh damn, I forgot my money, er…'  
"Its ok, I'll go ahead, see you guys this evening."  
Stacey then proceeded to make her way down the winding steps of the Ravenclaw tower to the main part of the school. As she meandered her way down one of Hogwarts ubiquitous corridors she ran into a gaggle of fifth year Hufflepuffs.  
"Hey Stacey," came a familiar voice from behind her, she turned to see the handsome prefect Diggory.  
"Hi there Cedric, going to Hogsmeade?"  
"Yup, got to stock up on Honeydukes chocolate before I get cut off from the rest of world."  
Stacey fell into step with Cedric and the rest of his friends, "Cut off from the rest of the world?"  
"Oh yeah, Ced's getting sent off to grandmas," piped in a random member of the group Stacey vaguely recognised.  
"Oh tell me about it, the whole summer I was with my Grandparents, they live in the middle of nowhere, and there are only so many country walks you can take, you know?" Stacey said sympathetically.  
Cedric shrugged ruefully, "write me?"  
_Uhhh…._  
Stacey laughed nervously, "If you're lucky, " by this time they had arrived in the entrance hall and Stacey saw Oliver, his scarf flying in the draft; his collar loosened as he stared into the distance his eyes squinted slightly. Her breath caught in her throat.  
"Um, looks like Oliver's waiting for me," _haha… yup hot quidditch boy is waiting for me… oh god… stoppit Lewis.. _"If I don't see you later have a good holiday Cedric."  
"Yeah you too, Merry Christmas Stacey"  
_Is it just me or does he look slightly put out?? Nah, its nothing…_  
"Merry Christmas, don't get too bored." Stacey replied and waved slightly before making her way towards Oliver.  
"Oliver!" at the sound of his name the quidditch player turned to face Stacey with a smile.  
"Hey, how are you?" he grinned down at her.  
"Not too bad, not too bad." Stacey casually returned, "So what are our plans for the day?"  
Oliver looked at Stacey slowly, "Um.. I didn't have anything specific planned…"  
"What?" Stacey asked feigning disappointment, "no romantic walk where you take me by the hand and lead me to some place that you've been going to since third year, where you can have some time to yourself and just forget about the world?"  
The look of complete and utter confusion on Oliver's face following her statement caused Stacey to burst out into uncontrollable laughter.  
"Right, well now that you've had your daily dose of laughing at my expense. Fancy a trip to Zonko's?" Oliver asked, offering the crook of his arm as he did so.  
"Why not, its been a long time since I've stepped into a shop expecting to come back out again maimed, time to mix it up again I reckon, live life on the edge and all that."  
"You talk a lot, you know that right?"  
"What?" Stacey spluttered out an attempted indignant response.  
"I'm kidding, c'mon" Oliver threw his arm around Stacey and pulled her closer to his side.  
"What do you mean…??? I what?"  
"Shhh… " Oliver soothed kissing Stacey on the top of her head, "you overreact too…"  
"Ugh.." said Stacey as she pushed Oliver away. "Fine if I have soooo many faults."  
"Yeah, but they're endearing." Oliver said as he took her face in his hands and laid a kiss on her nose. "Very endearing."  
_He's so… too perfect_  
"So Zonko's then?"  
"Right," Stacey nodded the affirmative, "Zonko's"

The couple had finally made it down the high street, and there it was, every prankster's dream. The fine establishment that was Zonko's, often frequented by names that appeared several times on Filch's equivalent of the FBI's most wanted list.  
"Ready?" Oliver asked in mock seriousness  
"As I'll ever be…" after considering her comment, "oh god that was corny."  
The two stepped over the threshold and were greeted with a number of magical contraptions to aid and abet any prospective troublemaker. The shelves were stacked high with various kits and packs to keep even Fred and George Weasley occupied for days. As Stacey moved away from Oliver and trailed her finger across various names that were emblazoned on the boxes crammed onto the shelves she failed to notice the brightly coloured boomerang headed for her, only when several voices yelled "LOOK OUT" and a large figure dove straight for her did she notice anything was wrong.  
"Really Lewis you should start paying more attention to your surroundings."  
_Eh, would you look at that, my own white knight_  
"You know," Stacey paused, looking up at Oliver's face, "you have really long eyelashes."  
Oliver frowned lightly, "uh thanks?"  
Suddenly realising the compromising position they were in and the group of concerned customers surrounding them, Stacey tapped Oliver on the shoulder, "not that I don't like you on top or anything but could you let me up?"  
Oliver smiled and sprung to his feet, holding out his hand for Stacey to take.  
"Thank you Mr Wood," came Stacey's prim reply.  
"Oh are you alright my dear?" came the breathy voice of what appeared to be the very harried shop manager.  
"I'm fine, just a little sore but its cool."

After having left the premises Stacey and Oliver stood outside the shops doorway not quite knowing what to do with them selves  
"How about some lunch, why don't you get us some drinks and I'll get us the food and we'll meet at the benches in the town square, say ten minutes?" Stacey suggested after some deliberation.  
"Sure, sounds like a plan."  
"So anything in particular you want?"  
"Surprise me," Oliver called over his shoulder as he turned away from Stacey.  
_Okkk.. well I could get something from the Three Broomsticks… or…._  
Stacey smiled grimly to herself as she saw the floral print curtains that framed the windows of Madame Puddifoots. As Stacey was now near enough to see the stitched detailing on the pink curtains, she grimaced.  
_Never did I think I'd go into this place…_  
A younger couple opened the door to gain access to the small teashop and Stacey caught a whiff of the various pastries and delicacies on sale within.  
_Mm, it might not be too bad after all._  
Shaking her head she turned the handle and pushed opening the door triggering off the charm that was placed around the door so that a small chime went off in the depths of the tearoom.  
"What can I do you for, my dear?"

Several minutes later Stacey emerged from Madam Puddifoots laden with several paper bags smiling lightly as she made he way to the town square. As she rounded the corner she noted Oliver already there also with two paper bags and a freshly conjured blanket.  
"Nice," was Stacey's first comment when she reached the tall boy.  
"Aint it just?"  
"Mhmm…." Stacey nodded, " just wonderful." She grinned as Oliver leaned down towards her, his lips catching hers just as snowflakes began to fall.


End file.
